Free Online Textbook List / Business

Free Online Business Textbooks

Whether you are taking your first class, working on your MBA or Ph.D. in a business-related field, finding top-quality online materials is key to making you more competitive with your fellow students. The Internet abounds with information for you but finding it isn't always that easy.

Online Degree Discussion will be continually adding new free online business textbooks to this section as we find them. We'll leave the multitudes of journals, articles and other resources for you to find as they would simply be far too much for one person to categorize.

Unfortunately, this section is a little slim on materials but I hope to find more great textbooks to share with my site's visitors.

If you have a favorite online textbook that you already know about, please visit my contact us form and share it with me so that I may share it with everyone else.

 
Corporate Finance: An Introduction
The first edition of this textbook sold for $200. The second edition can be purchased from Amazon for $60. The online edition maintains the author's copyright but students, faculty and the public can use it freely. This 1,100 page book approaches the subject in an innovative way and has been adopted by dozens of schools from high schools to Harvard.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
Democratizing Innovation
Written by Eric Von Hippel of MIT, this online business textbook discusses the growing trend of consumers driving innovation rather than consumers waiting for manufacturers. It discusses the societal benefits of user-centric innovation and how this shift is changing the business world.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
Industrial Organization, a Contract Based approach
Industrial Organization, a Contract Based approach was written by Nicolas Boccard, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Girona. Per Boccard, the textbook includes, "The analysis of market interactions, business strategies and public policy is performed using the standard framework of game theory and the recent advances of contract theory and information economics." An older version of this text was offered for sale and appears on Google Books. This site maintains the latest version of this downloadable business textbook.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 

 
Innovation Happens Elsewhere: Open Source as Business Strategy
Seems fitting that the authors of an open textbook would write about Open Source as a business strategy. Written by Ron Goldman and Richard P. Gabriel, this business textbook explains open source, how to do open source development and known problems and failures.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
Managing the New Frontiers: An Introduction to the Fundamentals
Author Jonathon T. Scott has over 25 years of experience as a lecturer, manager and business owner. He is a faculty member at Kozminski University (Warsaw, Poland), the Audencia Nantes School of Management (Nantes, France) and Bradford University (Bradford, UK). He introduces his Seven P's of Business Efficiency and discusses the impact of the environmental movement on waste and productivity. This is a huge book - 407 pages, in all. I didn't have the time to do much more than scan the chapter headings but it looks like this is a book all business majors should take the time to go through.

Last Verified: (Sep 9, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
Principles of Scientific Management
One of the first management consultants, mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor developed the concept of scientific management which was a system of organization where the functions of every member of that organization are clearly defined. His work was thought to have revolutionized factory or shop management. His business textbook on the subject was written in 1911.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
Sustainable Growth
Sensis is an Australian company which works with small and medium businesses and provides telephone directories for much of Australia. They are offering this free online sustainability text designed to help businesses increase their revenues without increasing their environmental impact. The chapter I looked through included read-world case studies and examples and though this book is geared for business owners, it looks like it could very easily be used as a college textbook.

Last Verified: (Sep 11, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
The Sources of Innovation
MIT professor Eric Von Hippel explores historical and developing trends of the sources of product innovation. Traditionally, innovation came from product manufacturers. Hippel discusses the replacement of the manufacturer-as-innovator assumption with a process distributed across users, manufacturers, supplies and others.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing

 
 
The Sustainable Business
This business textbook focuses on the original meaning of a sustainable business - one that can grow and survive long-term. It does discuss green and other environmental issues but is more focused on cost-cutting and increasing profits. Author Jonathan T. Scott presents the material in a highly readable style which makes his work useful to all students, not just business majors.

Last Verified: (Sep 8, 2011) Report Broken Listing