想学好A-level商务，请先记住这些核心概念（AS篇）

大家都知道，学习A-level商务对英语的要求极高，而很多同学觉得学习困难，答题无所适从，关键就是因为很多基础的概念都模糊不清。

 

为此，小编特地为大家总结了AS商务19个章节中的所有核心概念。

 

 

Business Glossary

AS Level

 

Above-the-line promotion: a form of promotion thatis undertaken by a business by paying for communication with consumers

Accounts payable: value of debts for goodsbought on credit payable to suppliers; a.k.a. trade payable

Accounts receivable: the value of payments tobe received by customers who have bought goods on credit; a.k.a. trade receivables

Acid-test ratio: (current assets –inventory)/current liabilities

Added value: the difference between thecost of purchasing raw materials and the price the finished goods are sold for.

Advertising: paid-for communication with consumers to inform and persuade

Articles of Association: this document covers the internal workings and control of the business – for example, the names of directors and the procedures to be followed at meetings will be detailed.

Arithmetic mean: calculated by totaling all the results and dividing by the number of results

Asset: an item of monetary value that is owned by a business

Asset-led marketing: an approach to marketing that bases strategy on the firm’s existing strengths and assets instead of purely on what the customers want

Autocratic leadership: a style of leadership that keeps all decision-making at the center of the organization

Bad debt: unpaid customers’ bills that are now very unlikely to ever be paid

Balance sheet: an accounting statement that records the values of a business’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’equity at one point of time

Bar chart: use bands of equal width but of varying length or height to represent relative values.

Batch production: producing a limited number of identical products – each item in the batch passes through one stage of production before passing on to the next stage

Below-the-line promotion: promotion that is not adirectly paid-for means of communication, but based on short-term incentives topurchase

Brand: an identifying symbol, name, image or trademark that distinguishes a product from its competitors

Branding: the strategy ofdifferentiating products from those of competitors by creating an identifiable image and clear expectations about a product

Break-even point of production: the level of output at which total costs equal total revenue – neither a profit nor loss is made

Buffer stocks: the minimum stocks that should be held to ensure that production could still take place should a delaying delivery occur or should production rates increase

Business plan: a detailed document giving evidence about a new or existing business, and that aims to convince external lenders and investors to extend finance to the business

Capital: factor of production including all man-made resources used by a business

Capital employed: the total value of alllong-term finance invested in the business

Capital expenditure: involves the purchase of assets that are expected to last for more than one year, such as building and machinery

Capital goods: the physical goods used by industry to aid in the production of other goods and services, such as machines.

Cash flow: the sum of cash paymentsto a business (inflows) less the sum of cash payments (outflows)

Cash flow forecast: estimate of a firm’s future cash inflows and outflows

Cash flow statement: record of the cash received by a business over a period of time and the cash outflows from the business

Cash inflows: payments in cash received by the business

Cash outflows: payments in cash made by the business

Channel of distribution: the chain of intermediaries a product passes through from producer to final consumer

Closed questions: questions to which a limited number of pre-set answers is offered

Closing cash balance: cash held at the end ofthe month; it becomes next month’s opening balance

Cluster sampling: using one or a number of specific groups to draw samples from and not selecting from the whole population, e.g. using one town or region

Command economy: economic resources owned,planned and controlled by public sector

Commission: a payment to a salesperson for each sale made

Competition-based pricing: a firm will base its price upon the price set by its competitors

Consumer goods: the physical and tangible goods sold to the general public; include durable (can be used morethan once) consumer goods, such as cars and washing machines, and non-durable (canbe used once) consumer goods, such as food and drinks.

Consumer markets: markets for goods and services bought by the final use of them

Consumer profile: a quantified picture of consumers of a firm’s products, showing proportions of age groups, income levels, location, gender and social class

Consumer services: the non-tangible products sold to the general public (include hotel accommodation, insurance,train journeys etc.)

Contribution per unit: selling price less variable cost per unit

Contribution-cost pricing: setting prices based on the variable costs of making a product in order to make a contribution towards fixed costs and profit

Corporate social responsibility(CSR): this concept applies to those businesses that consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their decisions and activities oncustomers, employees, communities and the environment

Cost of sales: a.k.a. cost of goods sold;the direct cost of purchasing the goods that were sold during the financial year

Credit control: monitoring of debts to ensure that credit periods are not exceeded

Creditors: suppliers who have agreed to supply products on credit and who have not yet been paid

Current assets: assets that are likely to be turned into cash before the next balance sheet date

Current liabilities: debts of the business that will usually have to be paid within one year

Current ratio: current assets/current liabilities

Customer relationship marketing(CRM): using marketing activities to establish successful customer relationships so that existing customer loyalty can be maintained

Debtors: customers who have bought products on credit and will pay cash at an agreed date in the future

Demand: the quantity of products consumers are willing and able to buy at a certain price for a particular period of time,ceteris paribus

Democratic leadership: a leadership style that promotes the active participation of workers in decision making

Direct costs: these costs can be clearly identified with each unit of production and can be allocated to a cost centre

Diseconomies of scale: factors that cause average costs of production to rise when the scale of operation is increased

Dismissal: being dismissed or sacked from a job due to incompetence or breach of discipline

Dividends: the share of the profits paid to shareholders as a return for investing in the company

Economic order quantity: the optimum or least-costquantity of stock to re-order taking into account the delivery costs andstock-holding costs

Economies of scale: reduction in a firm’s average costs of production that results from an increase in the scale of operations

Effectiveness: meeting the objectives ofthe enterprise by using inputs productively to meet customers’ needs

Efficiency: producing output at the highest ratio of output to input

Emotional intelligence: the ability of managers to understand their own emotions, and those of the people they work with, to achieve better business performance

Employment contract: a legal document that setsout the terms and conditions governing a worker’s job

Entrepreneur: someone who takes the financial risk of starting and managing a new venture

Enterprise: a factor of production including the driving force of a business, the risk-taking and decision-makingunit of a business which organizes the other three factors of production.

Equilibrium price: the market price that equates supply and demand for a product

Equity finance: permanent finance raised by companies through the sale of shares

Ethical code of conduct: a document detailing acompany’s rules and guidelines on staff behavior that must be followed by all employees

Ethics: the moral guidelines that determine decision-making

Extension strategies: these are marketing plans to extend the maturity stage of the product before a brand new one is needed

Factoring: selling of claims overdebtors to a debt factor in exchange for immediate liquidity – only aproportion of the value of the debts will be received as cash

Fixed costs: costs that do not vary with output in the short run

Flexi-time contract: employment contract that allows staff to be called in at times most convenient to employers and employees, e.g. at busy times of the day

Flow production: producing items in acontinually moving process

Focus groups: a group of people who are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, advertisement or new style of packaging

Franchise: a business that uses the name, logo, and trading systems of an existing successful business

Free market economy: economic resources owned largely by the private sector with no or little state intervention

Full-cost pricing: setting a price by calculating a unit cost for the product (allocated fixed and variable costs)and then adding a fixed profit margin

Goodwill: arises when a business is valued at or sold for more than the balance sheet value of its assets

Gross profit: equal to sales revenue less cost of sales

Gross profit margin: gross profit/sales revenue* 100

Hard HRM: an approach of managing staff that focuses on cutting costs, e.g. temporary and part-time employment contracts, offering maximum flexibility but with minimum training costs

High-quality profit: profit that can berepeated and sustained

Hire purchase: an asset is sold to acompany that agrees to pay fixed repayments over an agreed time period – the asset belongs to the company

Histograms: it is not the height ofeach bar that represents relative values, but the area of each bar.

Hourly wage rate: payment to a worker made for each hour worked

Human resource management (HRM): the strategic approach to the effective management of an organization’s workers so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage

Hygiene factors: aspects of a worker’s job that have the potential to cause dissatisfaction, such as pay, working conditions, status and over-supervision by managers

Income statement: records the revenue, costsand profit (or loss) of a business over a given period of time

Indirect costs: costs that cannot be identified with a unit of production or allocated accurately to a cost center

Induction training: introductory training programme to familiarize new recruits with the systems used in the business and the layout of the business site

Industrial markets: markets for goods and services bought by businesses to be used in the production process of other products

Informal leader: a person who has no formal authority but has the respect of colleagues and some power over them

Insolvent: when a business cannot meet its short-term debts

Intangible assets: items of value that do not have a physical presence, such as patents and trademarks

Integrated marketing mix: the key marketing decisions complement each other and work together to give customers aconsistent message about the product

Internal growth: expansion of a business by means of opening new branches, shops or factories (a.k.a. organic growth)

Internet marketing: the marketing of products over the Internet

Inter-quartile range: the range of the middle 50% of the data

Inventory: stock held by the businessin the form of materials, work in progress and finished goods

Job description: a detailed list of the keypoints about the job to be filled – stating all its key tasks and responsibilities

Job enlargement: attempting to increase the scope of a job by broadening or deepening the tasks undertaken

Job enrichment: aims to use the full capabilities of workers by giving them the opportunity to do more challenging and fulfilling work

Job redesign: involves the restructuringof a job – usually with employees’ involvement and agreement – to make work more interesting, satisfying and challenging

Job production: producing a one-off item specially designed for the customer

Job rotation: increasing the flexibility of the workforce and the variety of work they do by switching from one job to another:

Joint venture: two or more businesses agree to work closely together on a particular project and create a separate business division to do so

Just-in-time: this stock-control method aims to avoid holding stocks by requiring supplies to arrive just as they are needed in production and completed products are produced to order

Labor: factor of production, including the workforce of a business, both skilled and unskilled

Laissez-faire leadership: a leadership style that leaves much of the business decision making to the workforce – a “hands-off”approach and the reverse of the autocratic leadership

Land: factor of production, including all natural resources used by a business

Lead time: the normal time taken between ordering new stocks and their delivery

Leadership: the art of motivating agroup of people towards achieving a common objective

Leasing: obtaining the use of equipment orvehicles and paying a rental or leasing charge over a fixed period. This avoids the need for the business to raise long-term capital to buy the asset.Ownership remains with the leasing company.

Liability: a financial obligation ofa business that it is required to pay in the future

Limited liability: the only potential loss as hareholder has if the company fails is the amount invested in the company, not the total wealth of the shareholder

Line graphs: most commonly used for showing changes in variables over a period of time; these are time-seriesgraphs

Liquidation: when a firm ceases trading nd its assets are sold for cash to pay suppliers and other creditors

Liquidity: the ability of a firm tobe able to pay its short-term debts

Long-term bonds: bonds issued by companies to raise debt finance, often with a fixed rate of interest

Long-term loans: loans that do not have torepaid for at least one year

Low-quality profit: one-off profit that cannot easily repeated or sustained

 

 

 

Management by objectives (MBO): a method of coordinating and motivating all staff in an organization by dividing its overall aim into specific targets for each department, manager and employee

Manager: responsible for setting objectives,organizing resources and motivating staff so that the organization’s aims aremet

Margin of safety: the amount by which the sales level exceeds the break-even level of output

Marginal costs: the extra cost of producing one more unit of output

Market capitalization: the total value of a company’s issued shares

Market growth: the percentage change inthe total size of a market (volume or value) over a period of time

Market orientation: an outward-looking approach basing product decisions on consumer demand, as established by market research

Market research: this is the process of collecting, recording and analyzing data about the customers, competition andthe market

Market segment: a sub-group of a wholemarket in which consumers have similar characteristics

Market segmentation: identifying different segments within a market and targeting different products or services to them

Market share: sales of the business as aproportion of total market sales

Market size: the total level of salesof all producers within a market

Market skimming: setting a high price for anew product when a firm has a unique or highly differentiated product with low elasticity of demand

Marketing: the management task that links the business to the customer by identifying and meeting the needs of customers profitably – it does this by getting the right product at the right price to the right place at the right time

Marketing mix: the four key decisions that must be taken in the effective marketing of a product

Marketing objectives: the goals set for the marketing department to help the business achieve its overall objectives

Marketing strategy: long-term plan established for achieving marketing objectives

Mark-up pricing: adding a fixed mark-up for profit to the unit price of a product

Mass customization: the use of flexible computer-aided production systems to produce items to meet individual customers’ requirements at mass production cost levels

Mass marketing: selling the same productsto the whole market with no attempt to target groups within it

Median: the value of the middle item when data have been ordered or ranked. It divides the data into two equal parts

Memorandum of Association: a document stating the name of the company, the address of the head office through which it can be contacted, the maximum share capital for which the company seeks authorization and the declared aims of the business

Mission statement: a statement of the business’s core aims, phrased in a way to motivate employees and to stimulate interest by outside groups

Mixed economy: economic resources are owned and controlled by both private and public sectors

Mode: the value that occurs most frequentlyin a set of data

Motivating factors: aspects of a worker’s job that can lead to positive job satisfaction, such as achievement, recognition,meaningful and interesting work and advancement at work

Motivation: the internal and external factors that stimulate people to take actions that lead to achieving a goal

Multi-site location: a business that operates from more than one location

Multinational: a business with operations and production based in more than one country

Net monthly cash flow: estimated difference between monthly cash inflows and outflows

Net profit: gross profit minus overheads

Net profit margin: net profit/sales revenue *100

Niche marketing: identifying and exploitinga small segment of a larger market by developing products to suit it

Non-current assets: assets to be kept and usedby the business for more than one year; a.k.a. fixed assets

Non-current liabilities: value of debts of the business that will be payable after more than one year

Off-the-job training: all training undertakenaway from the business, e.g. work-related college courses

Offshoring: the relocation of abusiness process done in one country to the same or another company in another country

On-the-job training: instruction at the placeof work on how a job should be carried out

Open questions: those that invite awide-ranging or imaginative response – the results will be difficult to collateand present numerically

Opening cash balance: cash held by the business at the start of the month

Operational flexibility: the ability of a businessto vary both the level of production and the range of products following changes in customer demand

Operations planning: preparing input resources to supply products to meet expected demand

Opportunity cost: the benefit of the next most desired option which is given up

Optimal location: a business location that gives the best combination of quantitative and qualitative factors

Outsourcing: not employing staff directly,but using an outside agency or organization to carry out some business functions

Overdraft: bank agrees to a business borrowing up to an agreed limit as and when required

Overtrading: expanding a business rapidly without obtaining all of the necessary finance so that a cash-flowshortage develops

Partnership: a business formed by twoor more people to carry on a business together, with shared capital investment and, usually, shared responsibilities

Part-time employment contract: employment contract thatis for less than the normal full working week of, say, 40 hours, e.g. eighthours per week

Paternalistic leadership: a leadership style basedon the approach that the manager is in a better position than the workers toknow what is best for the organization

Penetration pricing: setting a relatively lowprice often supported by strong promotion in order to achieve a high volume ofsales

Performance-related pay: a bonus scheme to reward staff for above-average work performance

Person specification: a detailed list of the qualities, skills and qualifications that a successful applicant will need tohave

Personal selling: a member of the sales staff communicates with one customer with the aim of selling the product and establishing a long-term relationship between company and consumer

Pie chart: used to display data that need tobe presented in such a way that the proportions of the total are clearly shown

Piece rate: a payment to worker foreach unit produced

Price elasticity of demand: a numerical measure showing the responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price

Primary research: the collection offirst-hand data that is directly related to a firm’s needs

Primary sector: a sector of economic activity including businesses engaged in extraction of natural resources

Private limited company: a small or medium-sizebusiness that is owned by shareholders who are often members of the same family; cannot sell shares to the general public

Private sector: comprises of businesses owned and controlled by individuals or groups of individuals

Process innovation: the use of a new or much improved production method or service delivery method

Product: the end result of the production process sold on the market to satisfy a customer need

Product differentiation: making a product distinctive so that it stands out from competitors’ products in consumers’perception

Product orientation: an inward-looking approach that focuses on making products that can be made – or have been made for a long time – and then trying to sell them

Product positioning: the pattern of sales recorded by a product from launch to withdrawal from the market

Production: converting inputs into outputs

Productivity: the ratio of outputs toinputs during production, e.g. output per worker per time period

Profit after tax: operating profit minus interest costs and corporation tax

Profit sharing: a bonus for staff based onthe profits of the business – usually paid as a proportion of basic salary

Promotion: the use of advertising,sales promotion, personal selling, direct mail, trade fairs, sponsorship and public relations to inform consumers and persuade them to buy

Promotion budget: the financial amount made available by a business for spending on marketing/promotion during a certain time period

Promotion mix: the combination of promotional techniques that a firm uses to sell a product

Public corporation: a business enterprise owned and controlled by the state (a.k.a. nationalized industry)

Public limited company: a limited company, often alarge business, with the legal right to sell shares to the general public –share prices are quoted on the national stock exchange

Public relations: the deliberate use of free publicity provided by newspapers, TV and other media to communicate with and achieve understanding by the public

Public sector: comprises of organizations accountable to and controlled by central or local government

Qualitative factors: non-measurable factorsthat may influence business decisions

Qualitative research: research into the in-depth motivations behind consumer buying behavior or opinions

Quality circles: voluntary groups ofworkers who meet regularly to discuss work-related problems and issues

Quantitative factors: these are measurable infinancial terms and will have a direct impact on either the costs of a site orthe revenues from it and its profitability

Quantitative research: research that leads tonumerical results that can be statistically analyzed

Quota sampling: when the population has been stratified and the interviewer selects an appropriate number ofrespondents in each stratum

Random sampling: every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected

Range: the difference between the highest and the lowest value

Recruitment: the process of identifying the need for a new employee, defining the job to be filled and the type of person needed to fill it, attracting suitable candidates for the job and selecting the best one

Re-order quantity: the number of units ordered each time

Redundancy: when a job is no longer required, so the employee doing this job becomes redundant through no fault ofhis or her own

Retained profit: the profit left after all deductions, including dividends, have been made. This is “ploughed back” intothe company as a source of finance.

Revenue expenditure: spending on all costs andassets other than fixed assets and includes wages and salaries and materials bought for stock

Rights issue: existing shareholders are given the right to buy additional shares at a discounted price

Salary: annual income that is usually paid on a monthly basis

Sales promotion: incentives such as special offers or special deals directed at consumers or retailers to achieveshort-term sales increases and repeat purchases by consumers

Sales turnover: total value of sales madeby a business in a given time period; a.k.a. sales revenue; equal to sellingprice X quantity sold

Sample: the group of people taking part in amarket research survey selected to be representative of the overall target market

Scale of operation: the maximum output thatcan be achieved using the available inputs (resources) – this scale can only be increased in the long term by employing more of all inputs

Secondary research: collection of data from second-hand sources

Secondary sector: a sector of economic activity where resources extracted by primary sector businesses are processed and manufactured into final goods

Self-actualization: a sense of self-fulfillment reached by feeling enriched and developed by what one has learned and achieved

Share: a certificate confirming partownership of a company and entitling the shareholder owner dividends and certain shareholder rights

Share capital: the total value of capital raised from shareholders by the issue of shares

Shareholder: a person or institution owning shares in a limited company

Shareholders’ equity: total value of assets minus total value of liabilities

Social audit: a report on the impact abusiness has on society (it could cover pollution levels, health and safetyrecord, source of supplies, customer satisfaction and contribution to the community)

Social enterprise: a business with mainly social objectives that reinvests most of its profits into benefiting society rather than maximizing returns to owners

Societal marketing: this approach considersnot only the demands for consumers but also the effects on all members of thepublic (society) involved in some way when firms meet these demands

Soft HRM: an approach to managing staff that focuses on developing staff so that they reach self-fulfillment and are motivated to work hard and stay with the business

Sole trader: a business in which one person provides the permanent finance and, in return, has full control of the business and is able to keep all of the profits

Sponsorship: payment by a company tothe organizers of an event so that the company name becomes associated with the event

Staff appraisal: the process of assessing the effectiveness of an employee judged against pre-set objectives

Stakeholder: people or groups of people who can be affected by, and therefore have an interest in any action by anorganization

Stakeholder concept: the view that businesses and their managers have responsibilities to a wide range of groups, not just shareholders

Start-up capital: capital needed by an entrepreneur to set up a business

Stock: materials and goods required to allow for the production and supply of products to the customer

Stratified sampling: this draws a sample from a specified sub-group or segment of the population and uses random sampling to select an appropriate number from each stratum

Supply: the quantity of products producers are willing and able to sell at a certain price for a particular period oftime, ceteris paribus

Systematic sampling: every nth item in the target population is selected

Target pricing: setting a price that willgive a required rate of return at a certain level of output/sales

Teleworking: staff working from home but keeping contact with the office by means of modern IT communications

Temporary employment contract: employment contract that lasts for a fixed time period, e.g. six months

Tertiary sector: a sector of economic activity including businesses engaged in providing services to customers

Team working: production is organized sothat groups of workers undertake complete units of work

Trade barriers: taxes (tariffs) or other limitations on the free international movement of goods and services

Training: work-related education to increase workforce skills and efficiency

Triple bottom line: the three objectives of social enterprise (economic, social and environmental)

Unfair dismissal: ending a worker’s employment contract for a reason that the law regards as being unfair

Unique selling point (USP): the special feature of aproduct that differentiates it from competitors’ products

Variable costs: costs that vary with a change in output

Venture capital: risk capital invested in business start-ups or expanding small businesses that have good profit potential but do not find it easy to gain finance from other sources

Viral marketing: the use of social networking sites or SMS text messages to increase brand awareness or sell products

Window dressing: presenting the company accounts in a favorable light – to flatter the business performance

Worker participation: workers are actively encouraged to become involved in decision making within the organization

Workforce audit: a check on the skills and qualifications of all existing managers/employees

Workforce planning: analyzing and forecasting the numbers of workers and the skills of those workers that will be required by the organization to achieve its objectives

Working capital: the capital needed topay for day-to-day running costs and credit offered to customers. It is equalto current assets minus current liabilities.