Related papers
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS STUDIES INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS CONCEPTS
Majok Dod Kon
View PDFchevron_right
Managerial Economics- A Problem Solving Approach
cwec wer
Managerial economics, meaning the application of economic methods in the managerial decision-making process, is a fundamental part of any business or management course. This textbook covers all the main aspects of managerial economics: the theory of the firm; demand theory and estimation; production and cost theory and estimation; market structure and pricing; game theory; investment analysis and government policy. It includes numerous and extensive case studies, as well as review questions and problem-solving sections at the end of each chapter. Nick Wilkinson adopts a user-friendly problem-solving approach which takes the reader in gradual steps from simple problems through increasingly difficult material to complex case studies, providing an understanding of how the relevant principles can be applied to real-life situations involving managerial decision-making. This book will be invaluable to business and economics students at both undergraduate and graduate levels who have a basic training in calculus and quantitative methods.
View PDFchevron_right
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Victoria Burrus
Introduction to Business Management 6 | P a g e CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION THE SCOPE OF BUSINESS When God created the earth, he gave man the permission to subdue the things in it. God provided all that man would need but not exactly in their final consumption forms except in the case of certain fruits and crops. But essentially, man has to till the soil of the earth, do some conversions before he can consume most of the resources in earth. This, in fact, marked the origin of business. NATURE OF BUSINESS According to the dictionary definition, business refers to occupation, buying and selling. From this description, it becomes clear that business has to do with activities which individuals or group of individuals perform with the objective of satisfying defined needs. This is a generalistic approach to discussing business as no distinction is drawn between activities performed for profit and non-profit making. As business students, lecturers and practitioners, our interest should be in those activities which are profit directed. Boone and Kurts (1976) and Trumpp, Endrikat, Zopf, & Guenther (2015) supported this view point when they stated business as: all profit driven economic and commercial activities which provide goods and services necessary for a nation are living standards. These commercial activities include production, distribution and offer of direct services also sees as conceptualization, and measurement of corporate environmental performance. Introduction to Business Management 7 | P a g e Business classification can be done on the basis of theory and practice. Theoretically, business can be classified into the functional areas of production, accounting/finance, management and marketing. Finance is further subdivided into economic and insurance. This classification corresponds to the treatment of business in most Business Colleges in Universities and College of Technology. In practice, however, business is classified as follows: production, commerce and direct services. Production is a conversation process in which certain items are introduced as inputs and products emerge as outputs. Production involves much more than input-output relationship. A complete production system involves the following i. Extractive subsystem which involves such activities as agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining and quarrying, ii. Manufacturing subsystem which is the process of converting inputs to outputs, and iii. Construction subsystem which involves the building of roads, bridges, houses and factories. Commerce involves all activities associated with trade and aids to trade. Trade relates to the act of purchase/buying and selling of goods. It is classified into the domestic and foreign trade. Foreign trade can be either import or export. Import trade involves the buying of goods from other countries and bringing them into the importing country. An illustration is when Nigeria businessmen buy goods from Singapore, Ghana, United States or Britain or Philippine. Export trades include the sales of goods across other countries. Nigerian businessmen would sell goods under export trade to businessmen in other countries such as Cameroon, Liberia, and France and so on. Domestic (internal) trade is classified into retail and wholesale. Retail trade is the selling of goods in smaller quantities to the ultimate consumers. Wholesale trade involves the sale of goods in large quantities and mainly from the manufacturers. Aids to trade refer to all those things that assist in the performance of the trading activities. These include banking and finance, insurance, transportation, market research, advertising etc. Direct services are those which are rendered by professionals. The services must be independent of any other goods. In other words, they must be sold on their own merit Examples include health care, hair care, barbing, laundry service etc. Central to business is the concept of specialization and division of labour. Specialisation implies the performance of one or few related jobs to which one is proficient to the exclusion of all others. For example, a medical doctor can specialize on surgery. Similarly, a factory workman may specialise on Introduction to Business Management 8 | P a g e the operation of a single machine. The need for specialisation which increases output led to the concept of division of labour. Division of labour is the division of work into parts and each part being assigned to one person who is a specialist. It is a common sense arrangement by which each person concentrates on the work he can do best. Given the operations of specialisation and division of labour, it follows that no person can provide all he wants. He has to depend on others for the provision of those other things he requires for everyday living. This interdependence introduces the need for exchange. Exchange in its earliest form involved barter. Barter is the direct exchange of one commodity for another or of goods for services performed. When Ibe gives three tubers of yams to Okoro in return for ten cups of rice, this is barter. When Ibe workds for Okoro (known as lady's finger) in his farm land in return for six cups of garri (grain), this again is barter. Barter has its disadvantages and hence the introduction of a medium of exchange (money). In the modern society, exchange implies first, an exchange of goods or services for money and second, an exchange of the money needed in the ordinary course of life (Strafford 1971, p.3), the whole of political economy, indeed most of modern science, creates a culture based upon the 'real' (Baudrillard, 2016). It is therefore; correct to say that modern business revolves around specialisation, division of labour and exchange OBJECTIVES OF BUSINESS Any business firm must have basic objectives which it hopes to achieve. Generally, business firms have the following objectives. i. To produce goods or services efficiently and effectively to suit the needs and demands of the end users. ii. To generate enough revenue and to make profit. iii. To protect the well-being of employees. To achieve this, personnel management and industrial relation will be required. iv. To exercise good community relations with plant neighbours and the citizens. v. To actualize this, business may engage on certain social responsibilities such as provision of access roads, drinking water and scholarship awards to deserving students within the country, plant neighbour or children of employees. Introduction to Business Management 9 | P a g e vi. Achieving the desired rate of growth through effective management, ploughing back profit and diversification. Thus, the availability of employment opportunities for people is linked to growth potential. THEORETICAL CLASSIFICATION OF BUSINESS As earlier mentioned, we shall examine the following areas-production, accounting/finance, management and marketing. 1. Production Every business must produce one form of product or the other. Some firms produce tangible products while others produce services. Goods or services must be produced before consumers' needs can be satisfied. Production is basically the process by which raw materials (inputs) are converted into finished goods (outputs). This definition applies equally to human services which are rendered directly. These four major steps are necessary for an effective production process (Vadim, Valery, Ivan, &
View PDFchevron_right
Teaching Economics in a Management School: Some Personal Quandaries
Partha Ray
Management Education in India, 2016
View PDFchevron_right
Economic Art Speeds Business Decision-Making
Irvin Miller
The Journal of Data Education, 1973
View PDFchevron_right
Educational Innovation in Economics and Business Administration
Dirk Tempelaar
Springer eBooks, 1995
View PDFchevron_right
Educational innovation in economics and business administration: The case of problem-based learning
Bruce Macfarlane
Long Range Planning, 1996
This document will continue to evolve as the IR expands. Additional guidelines will be drafted, as needed, over the coming months.
View PDFchevron_right
What role for economics in business and management education?
Nigel M Healey
Journal of Further and Higher Education, 1993
View PDFchevron_right
Economics of Business Learning: The Need for Broader Perspectives in Managerial Economics (ECONOMIC THEORY, APPLICATIONS AND ISSUES WP 28)
Clement Tisdell
While most textbooks in managerial economics now give some coverage to business learning, and this is to be welcomed, their coverage of business learning is limited to a consideration of increases in productivity or cost reductions. Supply-side bias exists. The coverage of leading texts is reviewed. It is found that no attention is given to the underlying sources of business learning nor to phases of such learning. The ‘start-up’ phase, for example, is not specifically mentioned. Connections with productivity progress are not well explored and the possibility that business learning may depend on the duration of learning as well as the cumulative output of a business is not considered. The duration of learning is treated as an important variable in learning models developed in this paper. These models make it easier to distinguish between effects of learning on productivity or costs, and scale economies. It is also argued that more attention should be given to learning patterns of existing businesses for a change of their technique or major alteration of their product. Models, some of which involve a degree of ‘lock-in’ to existing techniques, are outlined for this purpose. In addition, other neglected microeconomic aspects of learning are considered. Lack of attention in managerial economics to learning about markets is seen as a grave shortcoming. More attention ought to be given to the alternative strategies available to a business for learning and aspects of motivation and activation for learning should not be neglected. It is then observed that the theory of optimal transfer pricing in multi-divisional firms makes no allowance for learning by the divisions. If learning is important, this is a further shortcoming.
View PDFchevron_right
Business education: the challenge of relevance and value creation
Dianne Bolton
2007
View PDFchevron_right