Unit 4 (1.5, 5.1, 5.2) Flashcards
Internal Growth
- Expansion of a business by using its own resources and not involving other business
Might be financed through loan capital, share capital, retained profits, etc…
- E.g. Opening new shops/factories
- E.g. Expanding overseas
External Growth
- Expansion involving other organizations
E.g.
- Merger & Acquisition
- Takeover
- Joint Venture
- Strategic Alliance
- Franchise
Reasons why a business might want to grow
- Higher sales revenue and (potentially) higher profit
- Higher Market Share, meaning more power in the market
— e.g. better placement in shops - Better brand recognition by customers
- Economies of scale
— Increased production should lower costs of production - More power over suppliers
- Sense of achievement for owners
- Can invest in Research & Development
Reasons for businesses might want to stay small
- Easier for the owner to manage
- Quicker decision making
- More personal service to customers
- Growing may require additional investment, which may mean giving up some ownership
— Could lead to a loss of control
— Might be a family business
Economies of Scale
- When a firm’s average cost decreases as it increases its scale of production
- As the firm produces more, it becomes more cost efficient
- Total cost is still going up, but it’s the cost of producing one item is going down
Diseconomies of Scale
- When a firm’s average cost increases as scale of production increases
- Average Cost = Total Costs / Output
Internal Economies of Scale (IEOS)
Economies of scale resulting from the firm producing more output
Ways of Internal Economies of Scale
- Purchasing economies
- Financial economies
- Managerial economies
- Marketing economies
- Technical economies
Purchasing economies
Bulk-buying discounts - can negotiate better deals for larger orders
E.g. buying 10kg of apples versus 10 tonnes of apple
- Average price of an apple when buying 10 tonnes < average price of an apple when buying 10kg apples
Financial economies
- Larger firms are likely to be trusted more by banks
- Lower costs of borrowing (lower interest rates)
Managerial economies
- Can hire specialists in each area - e.g. Marketing, Finance
- Rather than having someone who is good at one thing and not good at the other to manage everything, we can hire specialists who are good and more productive at what they do
Marketing economies
- Can spread the same marketing campaign over more units of sale
- The more we sell, the cheaper the marketing costs are
- E.g. 5,000,000 in one year of marketing. If we only sell 6,000,000 in sales, the cost of marketing takes a huge proportion of our sales, 83.3%. But if we sell 20,000,000 in sales, the marketing costs only take up 25% of our sales
Technical economies
- Larger firms are more likely to be able to afford to use better machines/technology
Can mass produce:
- Average costs of production are cheaper
External Economies of Scale (EEOS)
Economies of scale resulting from the whole industry growing in size
Ways of External Econoies of Scale
- Infrastructure improvememt
- More skilled labor
- Suppliers become more efficient
Ways of Diseconomies of Scale (DOS)
- Communication improvements
- Poor coordination and control
- Staff morale
Merger
When two firms agree to combine to form one larger business
The Shareholder of X and Y become shareholders of Z
- E.g. Kraft Heinz (2016)
- E.g. ExxonMobile (1998)
Acquisition
When one company buys another company usually with the intent of adding the acquired entity as a subsidiary to its business portfolio
Or a controlling interest, meaning > 51% of shares
- For public companies
E.g. Amazon buying Zappos, Twitch, Whole Food
Takeover
When one company buys another company who doesn’t want to be bought
Strategic Alliance
Agreement between two firms to work together but still remain independent companies
- E.g. Collaborate on a certain project for a period of time
- E.g. United sells Starbucks on their flight