DP1 2022 Case Study Key Terms

Not-for-profit business

A not-for-profit business refers to a private sector organization that reuses any financial surplus to achieve its organizational goals, rather than distributing the surplus as dividends to its owners.

Community

In the general sense, a community refers a group of people with something in common, such as those who share a particular characteristic or live in the same geographical area.

Employment contracts

Employment contracts are legally binding agreements between an employer and employees which set out specific terms and conditions established for work-related matters.

Ethical Issues

Ethics refers to the moral principles and values that form the basis of how business activity is conducted.

Investment

Investment refers to the capital expenditure of a business, i.e., the spending on acquiring, maintaining, and/or upgrading of fixed assets thereby broadening the firm's capital base.

Part-time employment

People in part-time employment work fewer hours per week than those with full-time jobs.

Promotion

Promotion refers to the method of communication marketing messages to customers, usually with the intention of selling a firm's products.

Prototype

Prototypes are trial or test products that are developed as part of the R&D process

Sustainability

Sustainability is about using the planet's resources in such a way that future generations are not deprived of access to what the current and previsous generations have enjoyed.

Sustainability policies

Sustainability policies are the internal rules and guidelines about using a firm's resources in such a way that it conserves scarce resources and/or finding more efficient methods to produce goods and services.

Testing

Test marketing involves launching a product in small geographic area or small part of the target market for a new product in order to gauge the commercial viability of fully launching the good or service.

European Union

The European union is an economic and political union between 27 member states in Europe.

Founder

The founder of a business is the person who started the business in the first place.

Resigned

This occurs when a person leaves their job. This might be due to better job opportunities with other employers, to take a career break, or due to staff grievances and dissatisfaction with the current employer.

Redundant

This occurs when workers are legally terminated from the organization because their job no longer exists, often due to financial problems faced by the employer.

Over-pricing

This pricing method is the act of setting a price over the actual value of the product, i.e., charging an excessive price for a particular product. It may be regarded as unethical in some situations and can have detrimental effects by alienating customers.

Financial support

This refers of external finance for an organization where an investor or donor gives the financial backing to the business, often in return for a share of the organization's future profits.

High profile

This refers to a person, product, brand or business having a position that attracts positive attention or encouraging publicity.

Morale

This refers to drive and self-determination to achieve something. It is about how good people feel about themselves in a workplace context.

New ways of working

This refers to flexible working practices such as flexitime, part-time, teleworking, and working from home.

Equality Policies

This refers to formal rules and guidelines against the discrimination of people in the workplace, irrespective of their gender, race, religion, and martial status for example.

Aggressive marketing strategies

This refers to offensive marketing strategies intended to capture the attention of customers by actively pursuing their engagement.

Underused

This refers to spare capacity in an organization, so represents idle resources. Underused assets are signs of inefficiency and can be detrimental to a firm's cash flow.

Economically disadvantaged students

This refers to students from low-income households, irrespective of whether they are local students or overseas students who come from least developed countries.

Compensation

This refers to the act of providing a person with financial payments for the costs of damages or inconvenience incurred.

Consults

This refers to the business function of seeking the opinions, feedback, and/or advice from others in order to make more informed business decisions.

Government

This refers to the central ruling authority of a country or state.

Operating cost

This refers to the day-to-day running costs of a business, such as payments for employees, rent, insurance, and utility bills.

Growth

This refers to the expansion of a business due to an increase in the size of the organization and/or growth in the industry.

Quality

This refers to the extent to which a product is for for its purpose, i.e., whether it meets the needs and wants of the customer by conforming to a certain standard.

External environment

This refers to the factors beyond the control of an organization yet have a direct impact on its operation and performance.

Resources

This refers to the factors of production used to produced goods or supply services, namely land, labour and capital resources.

Trend

This refers to the general direction in which a variable, such as sales revenue, is developing or changing.

Inclusivity

This refers to the human resource practice or policy of providing equal opportunities for all employee, irrespective of gender, race, religion, physical or mental disabilities, or other demographic segmentation.

Marketing strategies

This refers to the management process of formulating an organization's marketing goals and activities to increase sales and to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Expenses

This refers to the money spent on, or the costs incurred in, producing a good or providing a service.

Appointment

This refers to the process of hiring suitable workers. The appointment process helps decision makers to select and hire the best person for a job vancancy.

Compete/Competition

This refers to the rivalry within an industry.

Marketing expenditure

This refers to the spending off the marketing department in order to meet its marketing objectives.

Pay structure

This refers to the use of a graded range of continuum of wages or salaries paid by an employer.

Multinational company

A multinational company is an organization owned by shareholders and operates in two or more countries.

Revenue

This is the income of a business derived from its daily operations, i.e. the total amount of income earned from the sales of a good or service over a period of time.

Refurbish

This is the process reparining, cleaning and making good property or other assets or restore them to conditions as new.

Commercial production

This means that a product has been launched onto the market for sale after having been researched, developed, and tested beforehand.

Mission statement

A mission statement refers to a declaration of an organization's overall goal and its purpose. It forms the foundation for setting the aims and objectives of an organization.

Marketing budgets

A budget is a financial plan of expected revenue and expenditure for organization, or a department within an organization, for a given time period.

Business

A business is a decision-making entity involved in the production of goods and/or services to satisfy the needs or wants of customers.

Business Plan

A business plan is a written document detailing how an organization sets out to achieve its objectives and the strategies to achieve these goals.

Companies

A company is a business owned by shareholders who have limited liability.

Director

A director of a business is a senior executive responsible for an aspect of the operations and the performance of the company.

Faculties

A faculty is a group of departments in an educational establishment, such as a university, specializing in academic disciplines or areas of knowledge.

Grants

A grant is a source of external finance often provided by the government or a charitable foundation to an individual or business entity for a specific purpose linked to social benefits of others in the community.

Job vacancies

A job vacancy exists when a job position becomes available, often due to resignations.

Cash-flow problems

A liquidity issue occurs when the amount of cash moving into a business is less than the money going out.

Manfucaturers

A manufacturer combines and transforms raw materials and/or components into final goods ready for sale. They operate in the secondary sectors and usually operate on a large scale and divide tasks between different workers.

Trustee

A trustee is a member of the governing body of an organization, such as a university.

Employees

A type of internal stakeholder, employees are the people who work for a business to carry out specific tasks or roles within the organization.

University

A university is an institution that provides higher education services, awarding successful students with academic and research degrees.

Artificial intelligence

AI is an aspect of computer science focusing on the ability of smart machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as voice commands on a smartphone.

Activists

Activists are external stakeholders that exist to influence and persuade organizations and governments to act in a socially responsible or publicly desirable way.

Accounts

Also called the published accounts, these are the finanical statements of a company.

Carbon footprint

Carbon footprint is a measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by business activity. It can be attributed to an individual, business, event, or product.

Outflows

Cash outflows refer to the movement of cash out of an organization, such as the payment of wages and salaries, repayment of bank loans including interest charges, and/or taxes.

Change

Change refers to the modificiation or transformation in the way business is conducted as a response to internal factors or external influences. It arises when factors that influence the operations of an organization do not stay the same.

Contamination

Contamination is the presence of an undesirable component or an impurity within an environment.

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is the conscience of a business with consideration of the organization's actions on its various stakeholder groups and the natural environment. It also involves organizations monitoring and ensuring their compliance with the ethical standards of society.

Dismissed

Dismissal occurs when a worker's contract of employment is terminated, i.e. they are no longer employed by the organization.

Human Resource Management

HRM is about the development of people and overall workforce planning. It includes the recruitment, selection, dismissal, training and development of employees.

Opportunity

In a SWOT analysis, opportunities refer to changes in the external business environment that create optimistic prospects for a business.

Operations

In the broadest sense, operations a business function is concerned with processing resources to provide the output of goods and/or services.

Management

Management encompasses several roles which include planning, commanding, controlling, coordination, and organizing human and capital resources to achieve organizational objectives.

Managers

Managers are the people responsible for the day-today running of the business or a department within the organization.

Marketing

Marketing is the management process of identifying, anticipating, and satisfying consumers' requirements in a profitable way. It involves meeting customers' needs and wants by focusing on ensuring the product, price, place and promotion are effective in encouraging sales of a good or service.

Research

Research refers to the activities that a business conducts with the intention of making discoveries that can lead to commercial successes by adopting new processes and procedures in the workplace.

Renewable energy sources

Resources that are classified as renewable are natural resources that are replenishable through natural reproduction processes.

Services

Services are intangible products provided by organizations.

Board of trustees

Similar to the board of directors for a commercial for-profit organization, a board of trustees is the governing body of a non-profit organization.

Social Media

Social Media refers to any form of online platform that enable users to create and share interactive content or to participate in online social networking.

Specializing

Specialization is the process of a business entity focusing on the production of a limited scope of goods or services.

Staff turnover

Staff turnover measures the rate of change of human resources within an organization, per period of time. The more people who leave an organization per time period, the higher the labour turnover rate.

Survey

Surveys are a form of primary market research that involves the collection of data by asking research participants questions about a certain product, topic, or issue - such as the level of satisfaction with the service provided by a business.

Articles of government of universities

There are the documented guidelines and principles that govern how universities operate.

Trustees

These are individuals who are elected and given the authority to make decisions as members of the governing body of not-for-profit organization.

Least developed countries

These are low-income countries with lower levels of economic growth and socio-economic development.

Fees

These are payments made to a professional body in exchange for advice or services.

Representatives

These are people elected as delegates or ambassadors to represent certain stakeholder groups in negotiations and decision-making processes.

Day to Day Issues

These are the operations or activies that a business and its workforce engage in on a daily basis in order to meet organizational goals.

Long-term plans

These are the strategic plans of an organization that set out the goals that are likely to take several years to accomplish.

Economic recession

This is a period of negative economic growth in a country.

Land

This is one of the four factors of production required for the production of a good or service.

Ecological sustainability

This is one of the three pillars in Elkington's triple bottom line, along with social and economic sustainability.

Expansion

This is the enlargement of a business due to an increase in the size of its operations.

Training

Training is the process of developing the knowledge and skills of workers in order to enhance their confidence, competence, and commitment in the workplace.

Waste

Waste is a term for any business activity that is inefficient and does not add value to the production process.