Glossary
BTEC Level 3 Business Studies. Unit 1: Exploring Business
5 Cs - customer, company, collaborators, competitors, context
Ageing population - A population with a rising average age
Articles of association - A document that provides the details of the internal running of a limited company
Automation - The use of technology to replace human labour effort
Balance of payments - The difference between the flow of money into (exports) and out of a country (imports)
Business ethics - The moral values that guide business decisions
Carbon emissions - The amount of carbon released in manufacturing
Charities legislation - Rules that apply to organisations registered as a charity which outline expectations
Climate change - A change in global or regional climate patterns
Competition - Rival organisations providing the same or similar products
Competitive advantage - A set of unique features of a company and its products that are perceived by the target market as significant and superior to those of the competition
Competitive environment - The number and types of competitors providing rival products
Consumer Protection Laws - Laws that provide consumers with better information, protect consumers from possible hazards, encourage competitive pricing, protect privacy, or permit consumer lawsuits
Corporate culture - The set of values, ideas, and attitudes that is learned and shared among the members of an organization
Corporate social responsibility - Companies' acknowledged responsibility to society
Cost control - A business's efforts to manage how much it spends.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Systems to fully understand customers to ensure strong interactions and develop customer loyalty.
Demographic trends - Ways in which groups of people change over time
Differentiation - Making changes to a product to make it different from other similar products
Economic factors - Features of the external environment that relate to money such as inflation, balance of payments and GDP
Economic growth - An increase in GDP in an economy
Employee engagement - An individual's involvement, satisfaction, and enthusiasm for work
Employment law - The division of law that governs the relationship between employers and employees.
Environmental factors - The features of the physical environment around a business such as climate change, weather and waste disposal services
Exchange rates - The value of one currency in comparison to another.
External environment - Factors that exist outside of an organisation which may have a positive or negative impact on its performance.
Fiscal policy - Government collection of taxes to spend on improving the economy and people who live in it.
Grey pound - The spending power of those who are retired
Improved communications - Development of technologies such as email, social media, video calling, group messaging services and video conferencing
Industry regulators - Agencies that work within specific industries to work with organisations to ensure they are meeting regulations
Inflation - A general rise in prices in an economy
Innovation - An improvement of an existing technological product, system, or method of doing something.
Interest rates - The cost of borrowing money or reward for saving
Internal environment - The controllable elements inside an organization, including its people, its facilities, and how it does things that influence the operations of the organization
IPO - Initial public offering, a corporation's first offer to sell shares to the public
Legal factors - Aspect of law in the country a business operates in that they have to be aware of and adhere to in their business activity
Market leadership - When a business has the highest market share of all firms that operate in that market
Market share - A company's product sales as a percentage of total sales for that industry
Market structures - perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly
Migration rates - The numbers of people moving in and out of an economy
Monetary policy - Governments attempts to encourage and discourage spending within an economy through changing interest rates and the supply of money
Niche markets - Piece of the target market is narrow and specific, often created by businesses looking for a market segment whose needs are not being met
Partnership agreements - A written agreement among all owners detailing the rules and procedures that guide ownership and operations
PESTLE analysis - Analysis of the external political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors affecting a business
Political factors - Actions of the government which may have a positive or negative impact on a business
Porter's Five Forces - Model developed by strategy expert Michael Porter that identifies five competitive forces that influence planning strategies.
Pricing policies - The ways in which firms set prices or aim to influence the prices of goods and services.
Recycling plants - Organisations set up to collect and transform certain types of waste into new products or into less damaging waste for landfill
Reputation - How the public view an organisation and their products
Situational analysis - an assessment of a firm's internal and external environments
Social factors - Features of the external environment that relate to the way people behave and the values they have.
Supplier Relationship Management - Supports manufacturing flow by identifying and maintaining relationships with highly valued suppliers
Supply side policy - Government policy that supports businesses. This may include grants, tax reductions and removal of trade barriers
Sustainability - Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
SWOT analysis - a planning tool used to analyze an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
Technological factors - Features of the external environment that relate to the development of computers and machinery
Technology in business - The introduction machines and ICT to improve production processes and efficiency within an organisation
Trading communities - Groups of governments who agree to make trade between their countries easier through activities like reducing tariffs, e.g. The European Union
Unemployment - Measures the number of people who are able to work, but do not have a job during a period of time.
Unique selling point - Any aspect of or characteristic of a product that differentiates it from the competition. Firms will often want to stress this in their marketing.
Waste management services - Provision of services to remove waste created in production. This is usually a paid for service for a business