Contents
Introduction to Business Studies
Rationale
This is a multidiciplinary Business and Management overview. It has been created to give students an in-depth understanding of the 'big picture' of business, what is involved in the Business Studies and what it takes to succeed in further and higher education. It is not necessary to buy all the books or read through all workshop material at this stage. You may wish to return to and review these resource from time to time as you progress into the more specialised business and management course included in your programme.
Understanding a business is not simple. Even selling your product or service on a regular basis to customers is not so straightforward. This course is not a comprehensive, "how to do it" guide. It merely introduces the main aspects of business you'll need to know something about, the sort of investigation and information that is needed and questions to be answered, in order to grasp the specific areas of the rest of your programme and, perhaps maybe more importantly, to enable you to plan for your own business start-up.
The resources are designed to support business students undertaking a Certificate in Business Administration, Advanced Diploma and, finally the Bachelor of Business Administration degree course. Those whose entrepreneural spirit is driving them into a new business venture may also find them useful. The fact is, of course, that all business functions and operations need to be planned, hence, whilst you are being introduced to various aspects of Business Planning, you'll also get to know something about the business itself.
The purpose of this programme is to introduce you to the many facets of the enterprise system and of the businesses that operate within it. Since it is the first course in business, Business Systems is not going to teach you "everything you always wanted to know about business but were too afraid to ask."
It is anticipated, though, that through your experiences in this course, you will gain a better understanding of what enterprise is all about and what is included in each of the several academic areas of study in business at business school around the world. It is hoped that this improved understanding will increase your appreciation of the private enterprise system and will assist you in planning both your academic programme and the future career.
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A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.
The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.
- Audience
- Content
- Presentation formats
- Revisiting the business plan
- Legal and liability issues
- Open business plans
- Uses
- Satires
The term Business Model is relatively recent. Though it appeared for the first time in the 1950s it rose to prominence and reached the mainstream only in the 1990s. Thus far, the definitions have mostly come from the popular literature. These authors define business model in terms of what they think it should cover. For example, a definition from Osterwalder, Pigneur and Tucci (2005) is that a business model is:
a conceptual tool that contains a big set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and of the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing, and delivering this value and relationship capital, to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams.
More recently, researchers build definitions based on economic and organizational theories and show that the definitions are econometrically sound. For example, Malone, et al. (2006) at MIT propose an operational definition of business model, based on theories such as those from transaction cost economics. Zott and Amit (2002) from INSEAD and Wharton based their definition on boundary-spanning transactions.
- The subscription business model
- The razor and blades business model (bait and hook)
- The pyramid scheme business model
- The multi-level marketing business model
- The network effects business model
- The monopolistic business model
- The cutting out the middleman model
- The auction business model
- The online auction business model
- The bricks and clicks business model
- The loyalty business models
- The Collective business models
- The industrialization of services business model
- The servitization of products business model
- The low-cost carrier business model
- The online content business model
- The freemium business model
Learning Outcomes
The following learning outcomes have been set for your learning experience in this course. After completing the course you will be
1. acquainted with the private enterprise system - the foundation upon which business is built;
2. acquainted with the economic system and contrast it to other possibilities;
3. acquainted with the aspects involved with starting a business;
4. acquainted with the various functional areas of business - accounting, finance, management, and marketing - and how these areas are interrelated by means of information systems;
5. acquainted with the security markets - a dynamic part of your everyday life;
6. understand how you are affected by the business system and how you might some day fit into that system;
7. acquainted with the language of business.
Today's Videos
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- Google's Playlists
Teaching and Learning Resource
Business Plan as a Model, Business Philosophy, Business: Blending People, Technology, Ethical Behavior and Social Responsibility, Economic Challenges
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Economic
Transition in the Middle East Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
In economics, business is the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals, usually to generate revenue.
The etymology of "business" refers to the state of being busy, in the context of the individual as well as the community or society. In other words, to be busy is to be doing commercially viable and profitable work.
The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the general usage (above), the singular usage to refer to a particular company or corporation, and the generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the record business," "the computer business," or "the business community" -- the community of suppliers of goods and services.
The singular "business" can be a legally-recognized entity within an economically free society, wherein individuals organize based on expertise and skills to bring about social and technological advancement.
With some exceptions, (such as cooperatives, non-profit organizations and (typically) government institutions), in predominatly capitalist economies, businesses are formed to earn profit and grow the personal wealth of their owners.
In other words, the owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for their work - that is, the expense of time, energy, and money.
However, the exact definition of business is disputable as is business philosophy; for example, most Marxists use "means of production" as a rough synonym for "business." Socialists advocate either government, public, or worker ownership of most sizable businesses.
- Types of businesses
- Limited and Unlimited Liability
- Organization
- Business and government
- Capital
- Intellectual property
- Business and management
- Exit plans
- Yahoo! Finance Aggregates some good financial articles and company information.
- MarketWatch.com Contains stock indices, business news, company information.
- International Business Times A business newspaper with global news coverage.
Management and the Internal Organisation, Options for Organising Businesses, The Entrepreneurship, Competing in Global Markets
Human Resources Management, Labour-Management Relations
Tutorials
Readings
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International
Journal of Human Resource Management
Editor: Professor Michael Poole, Cardiff Business School, UK
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Operations and Product
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Tutorials
Readings
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Operations Management is an area of business that is concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient and effective. It is also the management of resources and the distribution of goods and services to customers.
Operations also refers to the production of goods and services, the set of value-added activities that transform inputs into many outputs. Fundamentally, these value-adding creative activities should be aligned with market opportunity (see Marketing) for optimal enterprise performance.
- APICS
- Business process reengineering
- Capacity planning
- Distribution (business)
- Enterprise Decision Management
- Industrial Engineering
- Inventory Management
- Just In Time Production Systems
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Operations
Management: Integrating Manufacturing and Services,
5/e Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Teamwork and Communications
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Tutorials |
Readings
Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively, as in a sports team.
Large ambitious goals usually require that people work together, so teamwork has become an important concept in organizations. Effective teams are an intermediary goal towards getting good, sustainable results. Industry has seen increasing efforts through training and cross-training to help people to work together more effectively and to accomplish shared goals, whether colleagues are present or absent. “The old structures are being reformed. As organizations seek to become more flexible in the face of rapid environmental change and more responsive to the needs of customers, they are experimenting with new, team-based structures.” (Jackson & Ruderman, 1996).
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Business Communication is any communication used to promote a product, service, or organization - with the objective of making a sale.
Business Communication encompasses a huge body of knowledge including Marketing, Branding, Customer relations, Consumer behaviour, Advertising, Public relations, Media relations, Corporate communication, Community engagement, Research & Measurement, Reputation management, Interpersonal communication, Employee engagement, Online communication, and Event management. Whatever form it takes, the objective remains the same - to make a sale. The Business Communication message is conveyed through various channels of communication including The Internet, Print (Publications), Radio, Television, Ambient, Outdoor, and Word of mouth. |
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See also
Business English is English especially related to international trade. It is a part of English for Specific Purposes and can be considered a specialism within English language learning and teaching; for example, the teachers' organisation IATEFL has a special interest group called BESIG [1]. Many non-native English speakers study the subject with the goal of doing business with English-speaking countries, or with companies located outside the Anglosphere but which nonetheless use English as a shared language or lingua franca. Much of the English communication that takes place within business circles all over the world occurs between non-native speakers. In cases such as these the object of the exercise is efficient and effective communication. The strict rules of grammar are in such cases sometimes ignored, when, for example, a stressed negotiator's only goal is to reach an agreement as quickly as possible. (See linguist Braj Kachru's theory of the "expanding circle".)
Business English means different things to different people.[who?] For some, it focuses on vocabulary and topics used in the worlds of business, trade, finance, and international relations. For others it refers to the communication skills used in the workplace, and focuses on the language and skills needed for typical business communication such as presentations, negotiations, meetings, small talk, socializing, correspondence, report writing, and so on. In both of these cases it can be taught to native speakers of English, for example, high school students preparing to enter the job market. It can also be a form of international English. It is possible to study Business English at college and university; institutes around the world have on offer courses (modules) in BE, which can even lead to a degree in the subject[1].
See also |
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Business English: Writing in the Workplace, 4/E Blanche Ettinger, Educational Director, Bronx Community College of CUNY
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop.
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Basic
English Review: English the Easy Way Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Financial Management, Financing and Investing Through Securities Markets, Business Law and Regulations
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Tutorials
Readings
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Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. The term finance may thus incorporate any of the following:
- The study of money and other assets
- The management and control of those assets
- Profiling and managing project risks
- As a verb, "to finance" is to provide funds for business.
For material covering three areas in finance - corporate finance, valuation and investment management, see Prof. Aswath Damodaran For links to finance web sites, grouped by topic see Web Sites for Discerning Finance Students, Prof. John M. Wachowicz For the introductory finance web site at the University of Arizona, studyfinance.com For introductory articles covering mathematical finance see quantnotes For introductory articles, a full glossary and links to resources on behavioral finance see the BF gallery For free English - Spanish financial glossaries see English to Spanish Dictionary of Finance Terms and Spanish to English Dictionary of Finance Terms For a Financial Glossary Wiki see Reuters Financial Glossary For Associations for Finance Professionals see Finance Executives International and Association of Finance Professionals and The Finance Exchange Project |
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Commercial law or business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. Commercial law regulates corporate contracts, hiring practices, and the manufacture and sales of consumer goods. Many countries have adopted civil codes which contain comprehensive statements of their commercial law. In the United States, commercial law is the province of both the Congress under its power to regulate interstate commerce, and the states under their police power. Efforts have been made to create a unified body of commercial law in the US: the most successful of these attempts has resulted in the general adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Various regulatory schemes control how commerce is conducted, privacy laws, safety laws (i.e. OSHA in the United States) food and drug laws are some examples.
See also
- List of business law topics
- Contracts
- Corporate law
- Intellectual property
- Property law
- Tax law
- Arbitration
External links
- Commercial Law - Articles & Definitions
- Topical listing of US commercial law from Cornell's Legal Information Institute
- A similar site posted by Georgetown Law Center - note: link no longer correct
- 100s of Answers to Basic Business Law Questions
Marketing Management, Promoting Goods & Services, Customer Driven Marketing, Developing and Pricing Goods & Services
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Tutorials
Readings
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Readings
Marketing Management is a business discipline focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm's marketing resources and activities. Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and composition of customer demand in a manner that will achieve the company's objectives.
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Contemporary
Marketing, 11e Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Distributing Goods & Services
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Tutorials
Readings The term Logistics Management is that part of Supply Chain Management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective, forward, and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements. |
A supply chain, logistics network, or supply network is a coordinated system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service in physical or virtual manner from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities (aka value chains or life cycle processes) transform raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Supply chains link value chains.
There are a variety of supply chain models, which address both the upstream and downstream sides.
The primary objective of supply chain management is to fulfill customer demands through the most efficient use of resources, including distribution capacity, inventory and labor.
Several companies choose to outsource their supply chain management by partnering with a 3PL, Third-party logistics provider.
Most recently researchers have focused on other aspect of optimization as well as Blendin Problem, location/allocation, Vehicle Routing and even Dynamic programming besides traditional logistics optimization.
Using Technology and the Internet, Using Technology to Manage Information
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Tutorials
Readings
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Information management (IM) is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information. Management means the organization of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information.
Throughout the 1970s this was largely limited to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation of information technology starting in the 1970s, the job of information management took on a new light, and also began to include the field of Data maintenance. No longer was information management a simple job that could be performed by almost anyone. An understanding of the technology involved, and the theory behind it became necessary. As information storage shifted to electronic means, this became more and more difficult. By the late 1990s when information was regularly disseminated across computer networks and by other electronic means, network managers, in a sense, became information managers. Those individuals found themselves tasked with increasingly complex tasks, hardware and software. With the latest tools available, information management has become a powerful resource and a large expense for many organizations.
In short, information management entails organizing, retrieving, acquiring and maintaining information. It is closely related to and overlapping with the practice of Data Management.
- Data maintenance
- Data management
- Data Smog (book)
- Digital exhaust
- Document management
- Enterprise bookmarking
- Glut: Mastering Information Through The Ages (book)
- Information continuum
- Knowledge management
- Personal information management
- Data flow diagram
- Operations research
- Systems analysis
- Documentation Standards
- Controlled vocabulary
- References
- Information Management Paper
- "Information Management Body of Knowledge" (Offers a 170pp freely-distributable broadly-based examination of IM issues)
Management Information Systems is a general name for the academic discipline covering the application of people, technologies, and procedures—collectively, the information system—to business problems.
This field is directly linked to Management by objectives and to the monitoring of Key performance indicators. It can also help in processing specific information for decision making (for example analyse customer behavior).
- Some confusions between MIS and IT
- Potential benefits of MIS investments
- Historical development
- Sources of information on MIS
Strategies for Success
The Dynamic model of strategy is a way of understanding how strategic actions occur. It recognizes that strategic planning is dynamic, that is, strategy involves a complex pattern of actions and reactions. It is partially planned and partially unplanned.
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William G. Nickels The Sixth Edition builds upon previous success and highlights some of the best features ever for a new edition. Not only will students be encouraged to study the traditional elements of business, but they will also see the influence modern technology is having on the business world.
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