Scholarly in tone and approach but accessible and of interest to students of business history as well as to budding...
Survey history of the alt-commerce movement that connects some major players in the modern retail space with the counterculture of the 1960s.
Rejecting capitalism and the quest for money back in the day, many an activist nonetheless went into business. Some of them pursued avenues that were not likely to lead to wealth. One of Davis’ (History/Univ. of Baltimore) case categories centers on the founders of African-American bookstores in Harlem and other urban areas, places that they viewed “as free spaces or sites of liberation and empowerment,” not necessarily as profit centers. As it happens, he adds, according to a contemporary survey, only about a third of those stores ever showed a profit, which did not keep activists from opening them throughout the era. The feminist founders of Liberation Enterprises had more success with aprons bearing legends such as “Fuck Housework,” which found a ready market and proved a pioneering move in the specialty mail-order business, the germinal ground of the internet economy. Just as successful by any measure were the head shops of the 1960s, which begat activist organizations such as NORML and High Times, which begat—well, among other things, a culture that has made it possible for many states to permit marijuana use, either recreational or medical. And nearly ubiquitous in the modern economy is the offshoot of the organic produce store, with all its built-in tensions: organic food costs more, limiting the market to the better-off, which gives us, in the end, Whole Foods. Davis capably traces that evolution through forerunner organizations such as Erewhon, in its time “the country’s biggest wholesale purchaser of organic produce and grains,” and the Good Food chain of Austin, Texas, in which Whole Foods founder John Mackey cut his teeth.
Scholarly in tone and approach but accessible and of interest to students of business history as well as to budding entrepreneurs.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-231-17158-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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