Andrews, (1971). The Concept of Corporate Strategy. Highly influential early book in strategic management that stresses the fit between internal resources and external opportunities. It develops a well-rounded picture of the strategic responsibilities of leaders and the entire process of strategy analysis, formulation, and implementation, including the values and social responsibilities of firms and top managers.

Rumelt, , Schendel, , and Teece, (1994). Fundamental Issues in Strategy. This collection of articles discusses some of the main topics in the field of strategic management from very different perspectives. Rather than providing a balanced overview of state-of-the-art theories in the early nineties, the book describes some of the most influential ideas, including an interesting debate about the relationship between game theory and strategic management.

Hitt, , Freeman, , and Harrison, (2001). The Blackwell Handbook of Strategic Management. Quite a comprehensive, edited volume that reviews some of the main topics in the strategic management field. A good insight into state-of-the-art research strategies at the turn of the century.

Early influential books in strategy include: Barnard (1938). The Functions of the Executive; Selznick (1957). Leadership in Administration; Chandler (1962). Strategy and Structure; Ansoff (1965). Corporate Strategy; Miles and Snow (1978). Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process; and Schendel and Hofer (1979). Strategic Management.

Simon, (1957). Administrative Behavior; March and Simon (1967). Organizations; and Cyert and March (1963). A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. These books develop an analysis of the firm from a decision-making approach and they discuss human behavior inside organizations through concepts like bounded rationality, attention, information processing, rewards, conflict, dominant coalitions, and organizational control. Classic books in organization theory.

Morgan, (2006). Images of Organization. Comprehensive review of different conceptualizations of the firm in organization theory through metaphors, such as organizations as machines, organisms, brains, or political systems.

Mahoney, (2005). Economic Foundations of Strategy. Useful review of the main economic approaches discussed in this chapter, including the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities.

Williamson, (1975). Markets and Hierarchies; and Williamson, (1985). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. Oliver Williamson covers in these two books the main ideas of his approach to transaction costs economics (TCE). The books are an essential contribution to the understanding of firms from a contracting perspective.

Hart, (1995). Firm Contracts, and Financial Structure. A key book for a formal property rights approach (incomplete contracting) to the theory of the firm, applied particularly to issues of corporate finance.CrossRef

Putterman, and Kroszner, (1996). The Economic Nature of the Firm. A selection of classical readings in economics about the theory of the firm, from Smith and Knight to Coase, Williamson, Hart, Demsetz, Teece, and others.

Scherer, and Ross, (1990). Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance. This classical textbook in industrial organization reviews the main ideas and the accumulated empirical research based on the structure-conduct-performance model. Though this book does not cover the theory of the firm, it is still highly recommended for strategy students.

Tirole, (1988). The Theory of Industrial Organization. A main textbook for the new industrial organization. The emphasis is on theory development through game theoretic analysis, including questions addressed by the theory of the firm.

Penrose, (1959). The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. Seminal analysis of the growth of the firm from an economic perspective that has inspired the resource-based view of the firm. The conceptualization of the firm as a collection of resources and its process of growth is analyzed in detail.

Barney, (1997). Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. A graduate-level textbook in strategic management entirely developed from a RBV.

Nelson, and Winter, (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. A highly influential book on the evolutionary analysis to organizations, including the critical role of organizational routines. Essential to understand economics as an evolutionary process.

Foss, (2005). Strategy, Economic Organization, and the Knowledge Economy. Arguably, the first serious attempt at integrating TCE and the RBV into a strategic theory of the firm. Interesting and insightful.

Schumpeter, (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. A classical book from the influential Austrian economist, particularly insightful in his analysis of the entrepreneurial process of creative destruction.

Porter, (1985). Competitive Advantage. In this book Porter further expands his influential ideas about business and corporate strategy. In particular, he proposes the use of value chain analysis to build cost leadership or differentiation.

Copeland, , Koller, , and Murrin, (1990). Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies. Traditional financial approach to measuring firm value. Useful manual for financial valuation.

Holbrook, (1999). Consumer Value. Interesting edited volume of different sources of consumer value from a marketing perspective. Much closer to psychology than to economics or strategy.CrossRef

Knight, (1921). Risk, Uncertainty and Profit. Traditional analysis of profits and the firm before transaction costs were introduced to economics by Coase, based primarily on entrepreneurial risk and uncertainty.

Obrinsky, (1983). Profit Theory and Capitalism. Excellent review of profit theory in economics from the classical authors to Marxist, Knightian, and Keynesian approaches. Particularly focused on macroeconomic implications and why it is so difficult for economic models to explain profits adequately.CrossRef

Mueller, (1986). Profits in the Long Run. Influential empirical analysis of sustained firm profits and the possible explanations why they persist in the long run.CrossRef

Geroski, , Gilbert, , and Jacquemin, (1990). Barriers to Entry and Strategic Competition. Review of the formal theoretical literature in economics on mobility barriers, conditions of entry and exit, and dynamic models of pricing and entry.

Porter, (1980). Competitive Strategy. Arguably, the most influential book in strategy. Complete manual to analyze industries and take strategic moves to build a superior position in the market. Heavily based on industrial organizational economics, particularly the structure-conduct-performance and the game-theoretic literature to competitive dynamics.

Grant, (2005). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Mainstream graduate-level textbook in strategic analysis that has seen six revised editions, the most recent in 2007.

Grimm, , Lee, , and Smith, (2006). Strategy as Action. Insightful analysis of strategy as taking actions and reacting to competitors' actions. This applied book develops a comprehensive and useful approach to understand recent ideas on competitive dynamics in strategic management.

Dixit, and Nalebuff, (1991). Thinking Strategically. The contributions to strategy from a game theory perspective are very clearly explained in this book for a nontechnical audience. Excellent introduction to the most useful aspects of game theory.

Besanko, , Dranove, , Shanley, , and Schaefer, (2004). Economics of Strategy. Mainstream textbook to strategy from an applied microeconomics perspective.

Beath, and Katsoulacos, (1991). The Economic Theory of Product Differentiation. Detailed and well-integrated discussion of the early theoretical literature in economics about product differentiation.CrossRef

Collis, and Montgomery, (1998). Corporate Strategy. Graduate-level textbook on corporate strategy from a resource-based approach, including elements of both strategy content and process.

Goold, , Campbell, , and Alexander, (1994). Corporate-level Strategy. This book describes with many useful examples how the corporate office can create (or destroy) value. Highly applied analysis of strategic management of diversified corporations.

Haspeslagh, and Jemison, (1991). Managing Acquisitions. Excellent applied analysis of how firms can create value through acquisitions.

Bamford, , Gomes-Casseres, , and Robinson, (2003). Mastering Alliance Strategy. Useful applied analysis of the entire process of alliance management.

Dunning, (1992). Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy. One of the mainstream books in international business with a new updated edition. Particularly good review of the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE), which is condensed into the ownership-location-internalization eclectic paradigm.

Bartlett, and Ghoshal, (1989). Managing Across Borders. Insightful analysis of the modern MNE. This influential book highlights the nature of the MNE as a network of geographical subsidiaries and the need for worldwide learning.

Gupta, , Govindarajan, , and Wang, (2008). The Quest for Global Dominance. A state-of-the-art practical analysis of the challenges for firms to build, manage, and exploit global presence.

,Classical books on the theory of the MNE include Buckley and Casson (1976). The Future of the Multinational Enterprise; Caves, (1982). Multinational Enterprise and Economic Analysis; Rugman, (1982). New Theories of the Multinational Enterprise; and Hennart, (1982). A Theory of Multinational Enterprise.

Friedman, (1970). “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” In this well-known article from New York Times Magazine, Friedman explains the traditional orthodox approach in economics to the firm's social responsibility. Essential reading.

Freeman, (1984). Strategic Management. Seminal and highly influential book on stakeholder theory.

Baron, (2006). Business and its Environment. Mainstream textbook on business and society from an economic perspective.

Adler, and Posner, (2001). Cost-benefit Analysis. This edited volume includes some excellent articles about the strengths and weaknesses of cost-benefit analysis in welfare economics from a variety of perspectives.