Oxford Dictionary of Business Management - Oxford Paperback Reference

The Oxford Dictionary of Business and Management bills itself as: "best-selling dictionary, containing over 6,750 terms"

And yes, that is a pretty accurate summation of this dictionary. So, I might as well get my coat then? No? You want to know a little more? Then I will tell you.

This is not the first edition of this dictionary. The new (fourth) edition contains 250 new entries.

It covers a wide range of different business terms, from economics to the laws as they relate to operating a business, and there is an appendix of useful business-related websites, too.

Although the dictionary is generally good (some of the concepts are gone over in considerable depth, some with separate one or two page features) some of the categories are a little puzzling. For example, the entry for Netscape Navigator says: "Netscape: One of the first web browsers. Introduced in 1994, it became the chief rival to Microsoft Internet Explorer."

Whilst the entry for Internet Explorer says: "A web browser introduced by Microsoft in 1995." The implication in the Netscape entry was that if it became the chief rival to Microsoft Internet Explorer, that the latter software programme must have been designed and launched before Netscape's product., which was more properly called Netscape Navigator. This was, of course, not the case. The truth was that the Netscape product was launched before the Microsoft one was.

Other entries cover every business concept from Local Authority Bill (not a law but a bill of exchange drawn up on a UK local government authority) to Loti, a unit of currency in Lesotho. Incidentally, in the language of Lesotho if a word is plural, the indicator of this is placed at the start of a word, rather than at the ending, as it is in English. So the plural for Loti is maloti.

There are some points when the dictionary would have benefited from more rigorous editing and cross-referencing. We are told that Ltd is "the usual abbreviation for limited. This (or the Welsh equivalent) must appear in the name of a private limited company." Sadly there is no real reference to what the equivalent Welsh word is. (It is listed in the dictionary as part of cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus, which means public limited company, so this omission is puzzling to say the least.

Errors and puzzling omissions outstanding, in all it a useful book if you are a student on a business management course or an economics student. It is in paperback and costs £10.99.