List of business theorists

A

• David Aaker - marketing, brand strategy
• Wil van der Aalst
• James Abegglen - management and business in Japan
• Bodo Abel
• Russell L. Ackoff - operations research, organizational theory
• John Adair - leadership
• Karol Adamiecki - management
• Rex Adams - management
• Niclas Adler - Swedish organizational theorist
• Charles Constance César Joseph Matthieu d'Agoult
• Yoji Akao
• Ali Akdemir
• Mark Albion - values-based business
• Howard E. Aldrich - American sociologist and organizational theorist
• Leon P. Alford - scientific management
• Tim Ambler - marketing effectiveness
• Igor Ansoff - strategic management
• Ingeman Arbnor
• Chris Argyris - learning systems, learning organization
• Horace Lucian Arnold
• Neal Ashkanasy

  B

• Stephen R. Barley - technology, organizational change, organizational culture
• Chester Barnard - management
• Gary S. Becker
• Charles Bedaux - scientific management
• Warren Bennis - leadership studies
• Per Olof Berg - Swedish organizational theorist
• Manfred Berliner
• Björn Bjerke
• Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett - operations research
• Ken Blanchard
• Charles Bosanquet
• Matthew Boulton - labor productivity
• Marvin Bower
• Richard Boyatzis - emotional intelligence, behavior change, and competence
• Leland Lawrence Briggs - American accounting scholar
• John Seely Brown
• Wilfred Brown, Baron Brown
• Nils Brunsson - institutionalized hypocrisy of organizations
• Lawton Burns - health care systems

  C

• Noel Capon
• Charles U. Carpenter
• Jean-Luc Cerdin
• James A. Champy - business process reengineering
• Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. - management, Pulitzer prize for The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business
• Clayton M. Christensen
• Alexander Hamilton Church - industrial management
• C. West Churchman
• Stewart Clegg
• Ronald Coase - transaction costs, Coase theorem, theory of the firm
• James C. Collins - vision statement, strategic planning and BHAG
• Morris Llewellyn Cooke
• Cary Cooper
• Stephen Covey
• Philip B. Crosby
• Richard Cyert
• Barbara Czarniawska

  D

• Robert Dahlstrom - American organizational theorist, works on international marketing
• David Dale
• Thomas H. Davenport
• George S. Day - marketing
• Jeff DeGraff
• Morris H. DeGroot
• W. Edwards Deming - statistical quality control
• Daniel R. Denison
• Eric Dent
• Hugo Diemer - industrial engineering
• Jan Dietz
• Patrick Dixon
• Henk van Dongen
• Sytse Douma
• Wiebe Draijer
• Peter Drucker - management 1909-2005
• Anna Dubois - Swedish organizational theorist
• Peter Dunn

  E

• Andrew S.C. Ehrenberg
• Michael Eisner
• Chester Elton
• Tunç Erem
• Richard F. Ericson
• Hans-Erik Eriksson - Swedish computer scientist and organizational theorist
• Agner Krarup Erlang
• Hamid Etemad

  F

• Henri Fayol - management
• Armand V. Feigenbaum - quality control
• Tim Ferriss
• Harry Anson Finney - American accountancy author
• Ronald Fisher - statistics
• Mary Follett - organizational studies
• Nicolai J. Foss
• R. Edward Freeman
• Mike L. Fry
• Adrian Furnham

  G

• John Kenneth Galbraith - The New Industrial State
• Henry Gantt - Gantt chart
• Burleigh B. Gardner - motivation research
• Michael Gerber - E-Myth Revisited
• Jamshid Gharajedaghi - American organizational theorist, management consultant, and Adjunct Professor of Systems Thinking
• Sumantra Ghoshal
• John P. van Gigch
• Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr.
• Frank Gilbreth - time and motion study
• Seth Godin
• Eliyahu M. Goldratt - theory of constraints
• Marshall Goldsmith
• Daniel Goleman
• Vytautas Andrius Graiciunas - management
• Lynda Gratton
• C. Jackson Grayson
• Danny Greefhorst - Dutch enterprise architect
• Miriam Green
• James Bray Griffith - American business theorist
• William H. Gruber - American organizational theorist
• Erich Gutenberg - theory of the firm

  H

• Stephan H. Haeckel
• Stephen G. Haines
• Noel Frederick Hall
• Brian Halligan
• Gary Hamel - core competency, strategic management
• Michael Hammer - business process reengineering
• Charles Handy - organisational behaviour
• Paul Harmon - management author
• G. Charter Harrison - Anglo-American management consultant and cost account pioneer
• Sven A. Haugland - Norwegian organizational theorist
• David L. Hawk
• Igor Hawryszkiewycz - American computer scientist and organizational theorist
• Robert Heller
• Frederick Herzberg - two factor theory, motivation theory, job enrichment
• Steen Hildebrandt
• Charles DeLano Hine
• Geert Hofstede
• Kenneth Hopper
• Yasheng Huang
• Albert S Humphrey - strategic planning, SWOT analysis
• Shelby D. Hunt
• Walter Hunziker

  I

• Masaaki Imai - Kaizen
• Anders Indset
• Kaoru Ishikawa - Ishikawa diagram in industrial process; quality circles

  J

• Mike Jackson - systems scientist
• Lars Jaeger
• John Jantsch
• Dave Jenks
• Anita Jose
• Joseph M. Juran - quality control, especially quality circles

  K

• Rosabeth Moss Kanter - business management and change management
• Robert S. Kaplan - management accounting and balanced scorecard
• Avinash Kaushik
• Dexter Keezer
• Kevin Lane Keller
• Roy B. Kester - American accountancy scholar
• Tarun Khanna
• Walter Kickert - Dutch academic and Professor of Public Management
• John Warren Kindt
• Charles Edward Knoeppel
• Richard Koch
• Lars Kolind
• Monika Kostera
• Philip Kotler - marketing management and social marketing
• John Kotter - organizational behaviour and management
• Vladimir Kvint - strategy

  L

• John Christian Langli
• Jean-Claude Larréché
• Kyoung Jun Lee
• William Henry Leffingwell - office management
• Paul Leonardi
• Harry Levinson
• Theodore Levitt - marketing and globalization
• Michael Lewis
• Peter Lindgren - Danish organizational theorist
• John Lintner - capital asset pricing model
• Ted London
• Juan Antonio Pérez López
• Jay Lorsch
• Michael Lounsbury
• Randi Lunnan - Norwegian organizational theorist, works on strategic alliances
• Reijo Luostarinen - Finnish organisational theorist
• James Alexander Lyons - American accountancy author

  M

• John Van Maanen
• James MacGregor Burns
• Kenneth D. Mackenzie
• Teemu Malmi - Finnish organizational theorist
• Vincent Mangematin
• James G. March - theory of the firm
• Constantinos Markides - strategic management and strategy dynamics
• Harry Markowitz - modern portfolio theory, Nobel Prize in 1990
• Perry Marshall
• John C. Maxwell - leadership
• Elton Mayo - job satisfaction and Hawthorne effect
• John H. McArthur
• Daniel McCallum - organizational charts
• Douglas McGregor
• Dalton McGuinty, Sr.
• Geoff Meeks - British accounting scholar
• Lucas Meijs
• Leo Melamed - currency futures and derivatives
• Gary Metcalf
• Henry C. Metcalf - the science of administration
• Henry Metcalfe - the science of administration
• Gerald Midgley
• Danny Miller - economist
• Merton Miller - Modigliani–Miller theorem and corporate finance
• Henry Mintzberg - organizational architecture, strategic management
• Franco Modigliani - Modigliani–Miller theorem and corporate finance
• Geoffrey Moore
• Richard Moran
• Gareth Morgan
• Gerry Morgan
• Silvina Moschini
• Hugo Münsterberg - psychology of work
• J. Keith Murnighan
• Christa Muth

  N

• Peter Naudé - marketing and business networks
• Nicholas Negroponte - human-computer interaction
• Nobuo Noda - Japanese business scholar
• Kjell A. Nordström
• Arne Nygaard - Norwegian organizational theorist

  O

• George S. Odiorne - management by objectives
• Kenichi Ohmae - 3C's model and strategic management
• Taiichi Ohno - Toyota Production System, lean manufacturing, just in time
• David Ogilvy - advertising
• Sharon Oster
• William Ouchi - Theory Z
• Robert Owen - cooperatives

  P

• Luca Pacioli - double-entry bookkeeping system and financial statements
• Javier Perez-Capdevila - strategic management and business analysis and valuation
• Krishna Palepu - business analysis and valuation, financial statements
• Scott Patterson
• Keith Pavitt - innovation clusters and innovation taxonomy
• Edith Penrose - The Theory of the Growth of the Firm
• Don Peppers
• Juan Antonio Pérez López - negative learning
• Oscar E. Perrigo - shop management
• Laurence J. Peter - Peter Principle
• Thomas J. Peters - management
• Jeffrey Pfeffer - organizational development
• Robert Allen Phillips
• Rebecca Piekkari - Finnish organizational theorist
• Henry Varnum Poor - principles of organization
• Michael Porter - strategic management and Porter's 5 forces
• C. K. Prahalad - core competency
• Derek S. Pugh

  R

• J. Donald R. de Raadt
• Navi Radjou
• N. Ravichandaran
• Jeffrey Rayport
• W. Charles Redding
• Robert Reich
• Fred Reichheld
• Reg Revans
• Jeremy Rifkin
• Fritz Roethlisberger
• Georges Romme
• Mike Rother

  S

• Martti Saario - Finnish organizational theorist and Professor of Accounting
• Kenan Sahin
• Mohammad Ali Sarlak
• Jason Saul
• August-Wilhelm Scheer
• Edgar Schein
• Eugen Schmalenbach - economic value added
• Hein Schreuder
• David Meerman Scott - inbound marketing and PR in the Internet era
• Walter Dill Scott - psychology of personnel management
• Esbjörn Segelod - Swedish organizational theorist
• Peter Senge
• Dorian Shainin
• Stanley J. Shapiro
• Seena Sharp
• Oliver Sheldon - business philosophy
• Walter A. Shewhart - control charts
• Shigeo Shingo - Zero Quality Control and Single Minute Exchange of Dies
• Herbert A. Simon - satisficing Nobel Prize, 1978
• Ibrahim Sirkeci
• Adrian Slywotzky - marketing strategy
• Linda Smircich
• Adam Smith - economics, capitalism, free trade
• Ivan Snehota - Italian organizational theorist
• Henk G. Sol
• Rolf Solli
• Thomas J. Stanley
• Andy Stefanovich
• Victor Hermann Stempf - American accountant
• Joel Stern - economic value added
• Rosemary Stewart - business theorist
• Antonio Strati
• Robert I. Sutton
• G. A. Swanson
• Richard A. Swanson
• William R. Synnott

  T

• Genichi Taguchi - Taguchi methods, quality control
• Don Tapscott
• Frederick Winslow Taylor - scientific management, time and motion study
• Sridhar Tayur
• David Teece
• Vern Terpstra
• Jacques Thomassen - Dutch organizational theorist
• C. Bertrand Thompson
• Alvin Toffler
• Thomas Thorburn - Swedish Professor of Business Administration
• Jean-Marie Toulouse
• Phil Town
• Henry R. Towne - scientific management
• John Tregoning - factory management
• Jack Trout
• Josiah Tucker
• Dominique Turpin

  U

• Yoichi Ueno
• Werner Ulrich
• Lyndall Urwick

  V

• Peter Vaill
• Andrew H. Van de Ven
• Jan Vanthienen
• Hal Varian
• Antoaneta Vassileva
• Henrik Virkkunen - Finnish organizational theorist and professor of accounting
• Henk Volberda
• Victor Vroom

  W

• André de Waal
• Jean-Baptiste Waldner - computer-integrated manufacturing
• Alexandra Waluszewski - Swedish organizational theorist
• James Watt - Industrial Revolution, division of labour, standard operating procedures, cost control
• Max Weber - a founder of the modern study of sociology and public administration
• Frank E. Webner - American consulting cost accountant
• Karl E. Weick
• Lawrence Welch - Australian organisational theorist
• Joseph Wharton - protective tariffs, business cycles, Wharton School of Business
• Alasdair A. K. White
• John Whitmore - American accountant, contributed to standard costing
• Eli Whitney - interchangeable parts, cost accounting
• Jennifer Wilby
• Thomas Williams of Llanidan
• Oliver E. Williamson - transaction costs, theory of the firm
• Mark W. Willis
• Pieter Winsemius
• Clinton Edgar Woods - factory organization

  Y

• Candace A. Yano

  Z

• Udo Zander - Swedish organizational theorist