Reading Lists

Given the pace of change in the world of business we are continually reviewing and enhancing the courses which make up the MBA. Therefore, we do not provide reading lists for individual courses prior to your arrival. Instead, so that you might prepare yourself for the course we recommend for you to read:

Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R., 2014. Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard business review Press.

• Lemahieu, W., vanden Broucke, S., Baesens, B. (2018). Principles of Database Management: The Practical Guide to Storing, Managing and Analyzing Big and Small Data. Cambridge University Press
• Danneman, N., Heimann R. (2014) Social Media Mining with R. Packt Publishing
• Kinder, J.M.,and Nelson, P. (2018) A student’s guide to Python: For physical modelling, Princeton University Press
• Raschka, S. and Mirjalili, V. (2017) Python machine learning: Machine learning and deep learning with Python, scikit-learn, and TensorFlow, Packt Publishing Ltd.. Harvard business review Press. 

We often get asked by applicants what they should do in preparation for starting their MBA. We do not want you to spend your summer reading something very theoretical or intense though. Rather we recommend a book that despite being published in 2005 we think still has something to say. The book that we are referring to is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborge (Harvard Business School). The book should be a relatively quick read and takes you through a few industries where players have managed to find new, uncontested, market-spaces. This something we as strategists are interested for a number of reasons and something we will discuss across a number of the courses that make up the programme. The issue for us is how we apply this to the energy industries.

If you chose to read the book we hope you find it interesting. If you have any observations we would of course be happy to hear them. Perhaps we can discuss them when you arrive on campus.

The text for Marketing Management BU5039 (Sept) and BU551H is Strategic Marketing: Creating Competitive Advantage, Third Edition, Douglas West, John Ford, and Essam Ibrahim, April 2015 Oxford University Press. (Chapter Summary LINK) 

The advanced text (for MSc Marketing Management) is Marketing Strategy: Based on First Principles and Data Analytics, Robert W. Palmatier and Shrihari Sridhar, MacMillan International Higher Education. (available as eBook)​​​​​​​

• Sally Dibb, Lyndon Simkin, William M. Pride, & O.C. Ferrel (2019). Marketing: Concepts and Strategies, 8 edition. Cengage Learning.  Jobber, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). EBOOK: Principles and Practice of Marketing, 9e. McGraw Hill.
• Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists, Peter Atrill, Eddie McLaney
• Szmigin, I. & Piacentini, M. (2022), Consumer Behviour, Oxford University Press.
• Osterwalder, Alexander, & Pigneur, Yves. (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Wiley. (available online via our library)
• Osterwalder, Alexander, Pigneur, Yves, Bernarda, Gregory, Smith, Alan, & Papadakos, Trish. (2014). Value proposition design: How to create products and services customers want. Wiley. (available online via our library)
• Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A., (2019). Research Methods for Business Students 8th ed. (9 licences)
• Dodson, I., 2016. The art of digital marketing: the definitive guide to creating strategic, targeted, and measurable online campaigns. John Wiley & Sons. Available through library
• Jobber, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). EBOOK: Principles and Practice of Marketing, 9e. McGraw Hill.
• International Marketing, (2020) 5 Edition EMA, Ghauri, P., Cateora P., McGraw Hill

Course Texts (BU5576)

There is no specific textbook for this course. However, the following texts will provide you with a useful reference source for placing the material from this course in a wider context:  

• Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. 2010 Business Model Generation, Wiley, London 
• Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., and Smith, A. 2014 Value Proposition Design, Wiley, London

Course Texts (BU551K)

There is no specific textbook for this course. However, the following texts will provide you with a useful reference source for placing the material from this course in a wider context:

• Dodgson, Mark and Gann, David (2010) Innovation A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press
• Kelley, Tom (2016) The Art of Innovation, Profile Books
• Ulrich, Karl & Eppinger, Steven (2012) Product Design and Development, fifth edition, McGrawHill.
• Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., and Smith, A. 2014 Value Proposition Design, Wiley, London

Cross Cultural Management (the following textbooks were used last year):

1)   Barbara, A. Budjac Corvette. (2013). Conflict Management: A Practical Guide to Developing Negotiation Strategies. Pearson. 

2)   Browaeys, M.J. and Price, R. (2015). Understanding cross-cultural management. Pearson education. 

Research Practice

Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2015) Research Methods for Business Students. New York: Pearson Education. 

Some additional information relating to textbook:

The course textbook for BU501K Consumer Behaviour is Szmigin and Piacentini (2018), Consumer Behaviour, Oxford University Press.

As for BU5573 Marketing Communications, there is no course textbook for this unit. The reading comprises of a pack that consists of academic journal articles, book chapters, industry magazine articles etc.

• BU502B Accounting Reporting and Strategic Analysis: P. Atrill, E. McLaney, (2019). Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists 11th edition, Pearson.
• BU502C International Finance for Business: Eun, C. S., & Resnick, B. G. (2014). International Finance, McGrawHill 7th. Global Edition.
• BU502E Issues in International Management:  Fatehi, K. and Choi, J. (2019) International Business Management: Succeeding in a Culturally Diverse World. Springer
• BU552H Financial Market and Regulation :  Valdez, S. and Molyneux, P. (2016), An Introduction to Global Financial Markets (8th edition), Palgrave, ISBN: 9781137497550
• BU551V Applied Econometrics: Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, (2020) Introductory Econometrics: a modern approach. 7th edition, Cengage.
• BU552G Corporate Governance and Ethics: Solomon, J. (2021) Corporate governance and accountability. 5th edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

• BU502B Accounting Reporting and Strategic Analysis: P. Atrill, E. McLaney, (2019). Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists 11th edition, Pearson.
• BU502E Issues in International Management:  Fatehi, K. and Choi, J. (2019) International Business Management: Succeeding in a Culturally Diverse World. Springer
• BU552G Corporate Governance and Ethics: Solomon, J. (2021) Corporate governance and accountability. 5th edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

In both semesters of the coming academic year, you will have the opportunity to acquire a solid background in finance and to strengthen your quantitative skills. Each module leader will provide you with a relevant reading list and various other sources. Until you formally start your studies, you might find the following sources useful.

General reading

• For up-to-date developments in the business world and in the economy check: The Financial Times, The Economist or Bloomberg.

Textbooks

• You will find it beneficial to go through certain concepts of corporate finance and portfolio theory before your arrival. Some relevant books that cover such concepts are the following:

- “Principles of Corporate Finance”, 12th edition, 2016, Brealey, Myers and Allen (McGraw Hill).

- “Essentials of Investments”, 11th edition, 2019, Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, Alan Marcus (McGraw Hill).

- “Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis”, 9th edition, 2014, by Edwin J. Elton, Martin J. Gruber, Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann (Wiley).

• It would also be very useful to brush up your knowledge in basic statistics and introductory econometrics. Until you face some more advanced and specialised concepts in this area later in the year (in BU5025 and BU5565), try and have a look at Chapters 1-5 of the following textbook:

o Chris Brooks, “Introductory Econometrics for Finance”, 3rd edition (or later), 2014, Cambridge University Press.

Journal Articles

• An interesting academic article written by the famous American economist and Nobel laureate in Economics Eugene F. Fama, was published in the Journal of Finance (1991, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 1575-1617). This paper discusses the seminal work of Eugene F. Fama on market efficiency as well as some subsequent research developments.

Some interesting references:

o Fama, E.F., 1970. Efficient capital markets: A review of theory and empirical work. Journal of Finance 25(2), 383−417.

o Fama, E.F., 1991. Efficient capital markets: II. Journal of Finance 46(5), 1575−1617.

o Fama, E.F., French, K.R., 1988. Dividend yields and expected stock returns. Journal of Financial Economics 22(1), 3−25.

o Goyal, A., Welch, I., 2003. Predicting the equity premium with dividend ratios. Management Science 49(5), 639-654.

People frequently ask for pre-sessional reading material. The references below should help introduce you to economics, law and valuation, and give you a sense of the recent ‘story’ of property and current property market issues. Dip into these books and you will soon become absorbed by this fascinating subject. Do not feel obliged to purchase them at this present time, as they maybe available at your local library.

• Ball M, Lizieri C, MacGregor B D (1998). The Economics of Commercial Property Markets, Routledge, London. Read the introduction.
• Brett M (2000). Property and Money, Estates Gazette, London (2nd edn) Read pages 1 to 87.
• Crane, A. and Matten, D. (2004). Business Ethics, Oxford. Read chapters 1 and 3.
• Hoesli, M and MacGregor, B M (2000). Property Investment. Principles and Practice of Portfolio Management. Longman, Harlow. Read chapters 1 and 2.
• Ling, D C and Archer, W R (2005). Real Estate Principles: A Value Approach. McGraw-Hill, New York. Read chapters 1 and 2.
• Mayes R (ed) (2006). Scots Law: a Student Guide, T&T Clark, Edinburgh (3^rdedition)

• MacGregor, B.D. , Schulz, R. & Green, R. (eds). 2019. Routledge Companion to Real Estate Investment, Routledge, Oxon. Read chapters 1 and 8.

•  Haynes, BP, Nunnington, N & Eccles, T (2017), Corporate Real Estate Asset Management – strategy and implementation (2nd edition) Routledge Taylor & Francis Group London and New York 

• Stiglitz, J E and Walsh, C E (2002). Economics. Norton, New York (3rd edition). Read chapters 1 and 2.
• Vaitilingam, R. (2010). The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages (5^thedition), FT Prentice Hall, Harlaw, England.
• Property Week - Weekly professional magazine covering property market news and issues.
• Estates Gazette - Weekly professional magazine covering property market news and issues. You will be able to access this on-line once you are enrolled on the programme.

• Geltner, D., Miller, N., Clayton, J., and Eichholtz, P. (2010) Commercial Real Estate Analysis and Investment, Cengage Learning, Stanford, CT.

• DiPasquale, D., and Wheaton, W. C. (1996) Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets, Prentice Hall,Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

• McCann, P. (2013) Modern Urban and Regional Economics, second edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

www.rics.org/UK

Here you will find a large amount of research and valuable data in the form of professional standards and guidance notes, news updates and commentary across all the key subject areas you will be engaged with in your studies.  You will be able to freely join the RICS as a student member when you come to the University so it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the volume of data available to you.

Example Readings

These are an indicative guide only and you should not purchase books on this basis. Exact readings and recommended books change from year to year as deemed necessary by course lecturers.

General Reading

• Subhes Bhattacharyya, Energy Economics; Concepts, Issues, Markets and Governance, Springer (2011), ISBN 978-0-85729-267-4
• Xiaoyi Mu, The Economics of Oil and Gas, agenda publishing (2019), Hardback ISBN 9781911116271, Paperback ISBN 9781911116288, e-book ISBN 9781911116295
• UK Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends: Volume II: Commercial and Contract Law Issues 3rd Edition 2018

Semester 1

Accounting 

• Walton, P. and Aerts, Walter (2006) - “Global Financial Accounting and Reporting: Principles and Analysis.” Thomson Learning, London.

Economic Analysis

• Nicholson, W and Snyder , C. (2011).  Microeconomic Theory Basic Principles and Extensions Thomson, London.

Introduction to Energy and Petroleum Economics

Readings will include articles from academic journals and selections from various texts. These texts may include:

• Bhattacharyya, S C.(2011) Energy Economics: Concepts, Issues, Markets and Governance, Springer
• Hannesson, R. (1998) Petroleum Economics: Issues and Strategies of Oil and Natural Gas Production, Quorum Books, Westport Connecticut and London.
• Masseron, J,(1990)  Petroleum Economics, Edition 4, Institut Francais du Petrole: Publications, (1990)
• Griffin, J. K, and Steel, H. B, (1986) Energy Economics and Policy, 2^nd ed, Academic Press College
• Tietenberg, T and Lewis (2008), Environmental Natural Resource Economics, 8^thedition, Pearson Education, or
• Tietenberg, Tom (2006), Environmental Natural Resource Economics, 7^th edition, Pearson Education.

Quantitative Methods

• Wooldridge, J.(2008) Introduction to Econometrics, 4th ed, Cengage.
• Watsham, T, and Parramore, K (1997) Quantitative Methods in Finance Cengage-Thomson

Introduction to Corporate Finance for Energy

Readings will in include articles from academic journals and selections from various texts. These texts may include:

• Newendorp, P., and Schuyler, J. (2014), Decision Analysis for Petroleum Exploration 3^rd Paperback edition, Planning Press,
• Berk, J and DeMarzo, P (2007) Corporate Finance, Pearson

September Intake Semester 1; January Intake Semester 2

LS501E State Control of Hydrocarbons

• Marc Hammerson, Upstream Oil and Gas Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary, London: Global Law and Business, 2011.
• UK Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends: Volume II: Commercial and Contract Law Issues 3rd Edition 2018

BU5073 Energy and Petroleum Economics

• Bhattacharyya, S C.(2011) Energy Economics: Concepts, Issues, Markets and Governance, Springer
• Hannesson, R. (1998) Petroleum Economics: Issues and Strategies of Oil and Natural Gas Production, Quorum Books, Westport Connecticut and London.
• Masseron, J,(1990)  Petroleum Economics, Edition 4, Institut Francais du Petrole: Publications, (1990)
• Griffin, J. K, and Steel, H. B, (1986) Energy Economics and Policy, 2nd ed, Academic Press College
• Tietenberg, T and Lewis (2008), Environmental Natural Resource Economics, 8^th edition, Pearson Education

BU5074 Corporate Finance and Accounting for Energy

• Berk, J and DeMarzo, P (2007) Corporate Finance, Pearson
• Newendorp, P., and Schuyler, J. (2014), Decision Analysis for Petroleum Exploration 3rd Paperback edition, Planning Press

September Intake Semester 2; January Intake Semester 1

LS551K Contracting in Hydrocarbon Operations

• Greg Gordon, John Paterson and Emre Usenmez (eds), Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends (3rd edition), Edinburgh University Press, 2018 (Volume 1)
• Andrei Belyi and Kim Talus (eds), States and Markets in Hydrocarbon Sectors (Palgrav, 2015) (full copy available on myAberdeen)

BU5556 Real Options and Decision Making

• Real Options: A Practitioners Guide by Tom Copeland and Vladimir Antikarov, Texere Press, 2003

BU5557 Issues in Energy and Petroleum Economics

• Bhattacharyya, S C.(2011) Energy Economics: Concepts, Issues, Markets and Governance, Springer

• Farnham, D. (2015) HRM in Context. 4th Edn. London: CIPD

• Kinder, J.M.,and Nelson, P. (2018) A student’s guide to Python: For physical modelling, Princeton University Press
• Raschka, S. and Mirjalili, V. (2017) Python machine learning: Machine learning and deep learning with Python, scikit-learn, and TensorFlow, Packt Publishing Ltd.

• Brealey, R.A., Myers, S.C., Allen, F., Principles of Corporate Finance McGraw-Hill, 13th Edition, 2019.

1. Issues in Corporate Finance (BU5034) (15 credits)
   1. Richard A Brealey, Stewart C Myers, and Franklin Allen, Principles of Corporate Finance, 13^th ed. 2019. McGraw-Hill,
   2. Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, and Alan J Marcus, Essentials of Investments, 9^th ed. 2013. McGraw-Hill

2. Accounting (BU5031) (15 credits)
   1. Micheal Jones, Accounting, 3^rd ed. 2013. Wiley,

3. Introduction to Corporate Finance Law (LS503N) (15 credits)
   1. Louise Gullifer and Jennifer Payne, Corporate Finance Law: Principles and Policy, 3^rd ed. 2020. Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

4. Corporate Governance for Corporate Finance (LS503P) (15 credits)
   1. Marc Moore and Martin Petrin, Corporate Governance: Law, Regulation and Theory, 2017. Red Globe Press.

5. Portfolio Analysis (BU5526) (15 credits)

1. Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, and Alan J Marcus, Investments. 12^th ed. 2020. McGraw-Hill Education,

6. Financial Analysis and Markets (BU5575) (15 credits)

1. Valdez, Stephen, and Philip Molyneux, An Introduction to Global Financial Markets. 8^th ed. 2015. Palgrave, London: New York, NY.
2. Krishna G. Palepu, Paul M. Healy and Erik Peek, Business Analysis and Valuation, IFRS edition. Cengage Learning.

7. Debt Finance Law (LS553L) (15 credits)
   1. Louise Gullifer and Jennifer Payne, Corporate Finance Law: Principles and Policy, 3^rd ed. 2020. Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
   2. Paul L Davies and Sarah Worthington, Gower's Principles of Modern Company Law, 10^th ed. 2016. Sweet & Maxwell Ltd
   3. Ewan McKendrick and Roy Goode, Goode on Commercial Law, 5^th ed. 2017. Penguin.

8. Equity Finance Law (LS553M) (15 credits)
   1. Louise Gullifer and Jennifer Payne, Corporate Finance Law: Principles and Policy, 3^rd ed. 2020. Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
   2. Paul L Davies and Sarah Worthington, Gower's Principles of Modern Company Law, 10^th ed. 2016.

9. Dissertation (Law) (LS5904) (60 credits)

For up-to-date developments in the business world and in the economy check The Financial Times, The Economist or Bloomberg.

• “Principles of Corporate Finance”, 12^th edition, 2016, Brealey, Myers and Allen (McGraw Hill).
• “Essentials of Investments”, 11^th edition, 2019, Zvi Bodie, Alex Kane, Alan Marcus (McGraw Hill).
• “Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis”, 9^th edition, 2014, by Edwin J. Elton, Martin J. Gruber, Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann (Wiley)
• Chris Brooks, “Introductory Econometrics for Finance”, 3^rd edition (or later), 2014, Cambridge University Press.

An interesting academic article written by the famous American economist and Nobel laureate in Economics Eugene F. Fama, was published in the Journal of Finance (1991, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 1575-1617). This paper discusses the seminal work of Eugene F. Fama on market efficiency as well as some subsequent research developments.

Some interesting references:

•  
• Fama, E.F., 1970. Efficient capital markets: A review of theory and empirical work. Journal of Finance 25(2), 383−417.
• Fama, E.F., 1991. Efficient capital markets: II. Journal of Finance 46(5), 1575−1617.
• Fama, E.F., French, K.R., 1988. Dividend yields and expected stock returns. Journal of Financial Economics 22(1), 3−25.
• Goyal, A., Welch, I., 2003. Predicting the equity premium with dividend ratios. Management Science 49(5), 639-654.

• Course Preparation Briefing Note
• Course Guide
• Course Timetable
• Ghosn Case

Teaching starts in mid January and we appreciate you may not have arrived before this.  Our induction sessions start in mid January, so it is important you can get registered and set up with the University online academic support systems before this. You will receive notification of dates by email.

Those that are unable to arrive before teaching starts, please email gbs@abdn.ac.uk, and make sure you come to the office when you arrive.  We will get you registered quickly, and sent off to meet your classmates.