ExamEssentials.com

What is a business?

• The nature of business
• Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors
• Entrepreneurship
• Challenges and opportunities for starting up a business

Types of business entities

• Distinction between the private and the public sectors
• The main features of the following types of organizations:
  1. Sole traders
  2. Partnerships
  3. Privately held companies
  4. Publicly held companies
• The main features of the following types of for-profit social enterprises:
  1. Private sector companies
  2. Public sector companies
  3. Cooperatives
• The main features of the following type of non-profit social enterprise:
  1. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Business objectives

• Vision statement and mission statement
• Common business objectives including growth, profit, protecting shareholder value and ethical objectives
• Strategic and tactical objectives
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Stakeholders

• Internal and external stakeholders
• Conflict between stakeholders

Growth and evolution

• Internal and external economies and diseconomies of scale
• The difference between internal and external growth
• Reasons for businesses to grow
• Reasons for businesses to stay small
• External growth methods:
  1. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As)
  2. Takeovers
  3. Joint ventures
  4. Strategic alliances
  5. Franchising

Multinational companies (MNCs)

• The impact of MNCs on the host countries