international trade and business growth

Question 1

define specialisation

Answer 1

• doing one thing well rather than many
• limited range of products or just one
• countries specialise based on resource, climate etc
• based on competitive advantage

Question 2

how can specialisation make a firm more efficient?
Taylors scientific management

Answer 2

• taylors scientific management
• all jobs should be broken down into a series of smaller component tasks
• employees = focus on one task = highly proficient
• speeds up production = more is produced = eos

Question 3

define efficiency

Answer 3

produce more output from the same amount of raw materials, machinery, energy, labour
- average costs fall

Question 4

what are the advantages of specialisation?

Answer 4

• higher output
• better quality
• more efficient
• economies of scale = lower average costs
• greater profit per item
• a sustainable way to keep ahead of competition

Question 5

what are the cons of specialisation?

Answer 5

• over-reliance - open to downturns in the market
• dynamic specialisation = other countries become better at it