BUSN 1200 MIDTERM Flashcards
What are the 6 different types of environments in business?
- Economic environment
- Technological environment
- Political-legal environment
- Socio-cultural environment
- Business environment
- Global environment
- Emerging challenges and opportunities
what is globalization?
The integration of markets globally
what are imports
- Products purchased in Canada that are manufactured and shipped in from other countries
what are exports
Products made in Canada that are purchased by consumers in other countries
what us BRICS
BRAZIL (agriculture and commodities)
RUSSIA (energy supplier)
INDIA (leading service provider
CHINA (manufacturing hub)
SOUTH AFRICA (minerals and other resources
what is absolute advantage?
- A country can produce something more cheaply or better than any other country
what is comparative advantage
- A country can produce certain items more cheaply than it can other items
what are the 4 barriers of international trade
- Social and cultural differences
- Economic differences
- Legal and political differences (protectionism, business-practice laws)
- Business practice laws
what is “DUMPING”
- The practice of selling goods abroad for less than a firm charges in its home market
what are ‘CARTELS”-
Associations of producers created to control supply in demand
what are external environments?
- Factors beyond an organizations boundary that can’t be controlled
what is the business cycle?
- The typical pattern of short-term ups and downs in an economy (peak, recession, trough and recovery)
what is “BOOM”
- Periods of economic boom bring jobs, growth and economic prosperity
what is recession?
- Two or more consecutive quarters in the decline of the GDP
what is aggregate output?
- Measure of economic growth
- Total quantity of goods and services produced by an economic system during a given period
what is GDP
- Value of all goods and services produced by a national economy within a given period through domestic factors of production (within the country)
what is GNP
- Value of all goods and services produced by a national economy within a given period regardless of production location (including international locations)
what is inflation?
Occurs when there are widespread price increases in an economic system
what is deflation
A period of generally falling prices
what are the 4 types of employment?
seasonal, frictional, cyclical and structural
what are the four factors to national competitive advantage?
- Factor conditions (factor of production)
- Demand Conditions of the consumer base
- Related and supporting Industries
- Strategies, structure, and rivalries of firms.
what are the five factors of production?
- Natural resources
- Capital
- Human resources
- Entrepreneurs
- Information resources
what is communism (command economies)
- Government owns and operates all industries
- It makes decisions regarding distribution of resources
what is socialism? (command economies)
- Government owns and operates all critical industries
(utilities and major institutions) - Individuals own non-critical businesses
what is capitalism (command economies)
- Encourages entrepreneurship and the private ownership of the factors of production
- Encourages profit making as an incentive
- Operates under the concept of supply in demand
what are mixed market economies? (command economies)
- Combination of both command and market economies
- No country has a pure communist, socialist, or capitalist system
- Privatization
- converting government firms into privately owned companies
- Nationalization
- the conversion of private firms into government-owned firms
- Deregulation
- reducing laws and government intervention
what are two benefits of competition?
- Helps motivate businesses to operate efficiently
- Forces business to make products better or cheaper
what are the 4 degrees of competition
perfect competition, monopolistic, oligopoly and monopoly
what is perfect competition
- Has many sellers and the product is basically identical
- Relatively easy to enter the industry
- Individual firms have no control over the price
what is monopolistic comp.?
- Has few too many sellers
- A differentiated brand provides the firm with some control over pricing.
what is oligopoly comp?
- A few large suppliers will dominate the market
- Each supplier knows what the others are charging
- Prices gravitate toward a common “market price”
what is monopoly competition
- One producer and source of supply
- Complete control over price
- No competitors
what is natural monopoly?
- A market or industry in which having only one producer can sufficiently meet demand
- It is the most efficient approach
government as provider of incentives
– Government provides aid and assistance to small businesses and non-profit organizations
– Incentives stimulate growth in revenues and employment
Government as provider of essential services
government as provider of essential services
- All three levels of government provide various services.
- Highways, postal service, military, education, health services.. etc.
3 managerial ethics
- Behaviour towards employees
- Behaviour towards the organization
- Behaviour towards other economic entities
what’s insider trading
– Using confidential (non-public) information to gain from the sale of stock
– Involves gaining knowledge of inside information about the company prior to making the purchase
– Can involve the collusion of investors buying and selling stock at the appropriate time to make huge profits
what’s cheque kitting
– Illegal practice of writing cheques against money that has not yet arrived in the bank account
– A creative “cheque kiter” can write cheques from account to account with very little money to back it up
– The assumption is that the money will arrive before the cheque needs to clear
what is misrepresentation of finances
– Companies must conform to accounting guidelines called generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
– Failure to follow GAAP in order to inflate expected profit figures can mislead investors
what are the four functions performed by managers?
-planning
-leading
-organizing
-controlling
what is top-line management responsible for?
overall performance of the the business
what is middle-line management responsible for?
implementing decisions of top managers
what is first-line management responsible for?
supervising employees
what are strategic goals
long term goals. set for 5 or more years
what are tactical goals
intermediate. set for 1-5 years
what are operational goals
set for less than a year
what are SMART goals?
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-framed
what are mission statements?
– Describes how the organization will achieve its purpose (reason for being)
– Clarifies who the organization serves, what it offers, and how it will be provided
– Includes core values and ethical commitment
what is SWOT? Analyzing the organization and its environment
Strengths (internal)
Weakness (internal)
Oppurtunities (external)
Threats (external)
what is cooperate-level strategy?
what business will we persue? How do these businesses relate to each other
what is business-level strategy?
how will we compete in our chosen area?
what are the 4 building blocks of organizational structure
specialization, departmentalization, span of control and chain of command
what is specialization
- Determining who will do what tasks
- Identifying specific jobs and who will complete them
what is departmentalization
- Determining how those tasks should be grouped together to make the workplace more efficient
- Grouping jobs into logical movements
increases efficiency
what are the 5 bases of departmentalization?
Functional, customer, product, geographic, process
what is fictional (Bases of departmentalization)
Structuring the business activities according to the functions or activities carried out in the firm. It is common in both service and manufacturing companies.
what is functional? Bases of departmentalization)
Structuring the business activities according to the functions or activities carried out in the firm. It is common in both service and manufacturing companies
what is geographic? Bases of departmentalization
Structuring activities according to the geographic areas served.
what is customer? Bases of departmentalization
Structuring activities according to the type of customer likely to buy a given product. Advantages are described
what is product? bases of departmentalization
Structuring activities according to the specific good produced.
what is process? bases of departmentalization
Structuring activities according to the production process that is used to make a product
what is span of control?
The number of subordinates that a manager is responsible for supervising
- wide span: many subordinates
- narrow span: very few subordinates
Complicated tasks require more supervision and a narrow span of control
what is Flat organizational structure
– few layers of management
– too few = chaos and inefficiency
what is tall organizational structure?
– many layers of management
– too many = rigidity and bureaucracy
