1.2 Business Economics Flashcards
What is a monopoly
A monopoly is a situation where there is one dominant seller in the market
what is a natural monopoly
A natural monopoly is a situation that occurs when one firm is able to server the industry at a lower cost than lots of small firms
What are the features of a monopoly
Price makers
Niche product
High barriers to entry
One firm dominates the market
what are the advantages of a monopoly and expand where necessary
- Innovation - lots of money going into one firm means lots can go into innovation
- Economies of scale
- Efficiency - with multiple firms, there can be wasteful duplications of resources
what are the disadvantages of a monopoly
- restricted choice for consumer - leads to higher pices and potential exploitation for consumer
- Inefficiency - no incentives to keep costs down
- lack of innovation - no incentives
What is a barrier to entry?
obstacles at discourage a firm from entering the market
list some barriers to entry
- patents
- legal barriers - government contracts with monopolies
- technology
- high start-up costs
- high marketing budjet
What are factors influence firm growth
- Economies of scale
- reducing risk - if a business has multiple shops it wont destroy the business if one goes down
- desire to take over competitors
- already have acess to large amounts of finance
What are factors that influence firms to stay small
- diseconomies of scale
- aims of the entrepreneur
- government regulations - government doesn’t want the chance of a monopoly
- size of the market - no need to expand in a very luxurious market where there will always be limited demand
what are some advantages of small firms and expand where necessary
- Flexibility - easier to make changes
- lower wage costs - workers in small firms most likely aren’t in trade unions and can’t negotiate wage as much
- better communication
- personals services
what are some disadvantages of small firms and expand where necessary
- cannot exploit economies of scale - higher costs
- difficulty attracting quality staff
- vulnerability
what are some advantages of large firms and expand where necessary
- Economies of scale
- Market domination - leads to higher profile in public eye
- less vulnerability
What are some disadvantages of large firms and expand where neccessary
FINISH
What is economies of scale
Economies of scale are the cost advantages a company faces as it expands. the average cost decreases
What is diseconomies of scale
Economies of scale are the cost disadvantages a company faces as it expands. the average cost increases