Exam Board: AQA Level: AS/A-level Subject: Business First Teaching: September 2015 First Exam: June 2016 Ian Marcouse has been trusted by Business students for over 15 years and his updated textbook has been fully revised to reflect the 2015 AQA Business specification, giving you up-to-date material that supports your teaching and student''s learning. - Guides students through the content in an easy to understand way, with the new ''logic chain'' feature at the start of every chapter showing them the progression clearly - Helps students apply their knowledge and analyse business data with real business examples throughout - Consolidates students'' learning and prepares them for assessment with the workbook feature at the end of every chapter containing knowledge check and practice questions

Vorwort
Develop understanding of business arguments and reasoning, with a clear progression pathway and case studies that illustrate core points.

Autorentext
Ian Marcousé is a former Chief Examiner as well as bestselling Business author. He launched the A-Z brand and has published several successful books as well as editing Business Review magazine.

Inhalt

• Section 1: What is Business?
• • Chapter 1: Understanding the nature and purpose of business
  • Chapter 2: Different business forms
  • Chapter 3: Issues in understanding different business forms
  • Chapter 4: Understanding that businesses operate within an external environment
• Section 2: Managers, leadership and decision-making
• • Chapter 5: What managers do
  • Chapter 6: Types of management and leadership styles and their effectiveness
  • Chapter 7: Understanding management decision-making
  • Chapter 8: Decision trees
  • Chapter 9: Opportunity cost
  • Chapter 10: Understanding the role and importance of stakeholders
• Section 3: Decision-making to improve marketing performance
• • Chapter 11: Marketing and decision-making
  • Chapter 12: Marketing and competitiveness
  • Chapter 13: Setting marketing objectives
  • Chapter 14: Understanding markets
  • Chapter 15: Market research and sampling
  • Chapter 16: The interpretation of marketing data
  • Chapter 17: Price and income elasticity of demand
  • Chapter 18: Market data and analysis
  • Chapter 19: Segmentation, targeting and positioning
  • Chapter 20: Niche and mass marketing
  • Chapter 21: Marketing mix: 7Ps
  • Chapter 22: Product decisions: product life cycle and product portfolio
  • Chapter 23: Pricing decisions
  • Chapter 24: Place and promotion decisions
  • Chapter 25: Integrating the marketing mix
• Section 4: Decision-making to improve operational performance
• • Chapter 26: Setting operational objectives
  • Chapter 27: Efficiency and labour productivity
  • Chapter 28: Lean production
  • Chapter 29: Capacity utilisation
  • Chapter 30: Technology and operational efficiency
  • Chapter 31: Analysing operational performance
  • Chapter 32: Improving quality
  • Chapter 33: Managing supply chains
  • Chapter 34: Managing inventory
  • Chapter 35: Decision-making to improve operational performance
• Section 5: Decision-making to improve financial performance
• • Chapter 36: Financial objectives
  • Chapter 37: Calculating revenue, costs and profit
  • Chapter 38: Break-even analysis
  • Chapter 39: Cash flow management
  • Chapter 40: Budgets and budgeting
  • Chapter 41: Profit and how to increase it
  • Chapter 42: Cash flow versus profit
  • Chapter 43: Sources of finance
  • Chapter 44: Decision-making to improve financial performance
• Section 6: Decision-making to improve human resource performance
• • Chapter 45: Setting human resource objectives
  • Chapter 46: Motivation and engagement in theory
  • Chapter 47: Motivation and engagement in practice
  • Chapter 48: Improving organisational design
  • Chapter 49: Managing the human resource flow
  • Chapter 50: Improving employeremployee relations
  • Chapter 51: Analysing human resource performance
  • Chapter 52: Decision-making and improved HR performance
• Section 7: Analysing the strategic position of a business
• • Chapter 53: Influences on the mission of a business
  • Chapter 54: Corporate objectives, strategy & tactics
  • Chapter 55: The impact of strategic decision making on functional decision making
  • Chapter 56: The value of SWOT analysis
  • Chapter 57: Financial objectives and constraints
  • Chapter 58: Balance sheets and income statements
  • Chapter 59: Financial ratio analysis
  • Chapter 60: Value and limitations of financial ratios
  • Chapter 61: How to analyse data other than financial statements
  • Chapter 62: Assessing short- and long-term performance
  • Chapter 63: Different measures of assessing business performance
  • Chapter 64: Changes in the political and legal environment
  • Chapter 65: The impact of government policy
  • Chapter 66: The impact of changes in the economic environment
  • Chapter 67: Globalisation and emerging economies
  • Chapter 68: The impact of social change
  • Chapter 69: The social environment including CSR
  • Chapter 70: Technological change
  • Chapter 71: The competitive environment
  • Chapter 72: Analysing strategic options
  • Chapter 73: Investment appraisal
  • Chapter 74: Sensitivity analysis
• Section 8: Choosing strategic direction
• • Chapter 75: Strategic direction: Ansoff's matrix
  • Chapter 76: Competitive advantage
  • Chapter 77: Strategic positioning
• Section 9: Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies
• • Chapter 78: Growth and retrenchment
  • Chapter 79: Economies and diseconomies of scale
  • Chapter 80: Methods and types of growth
  • Chapter 81: Innovation
  • Chapter 82: Becoming an innovative organisation
  • Chapter 83: Protecting innovative ideas
  • Chapter 84: Reasons for trading internationally
  • Chapter 85: Attractiveness of international markets
  • Chapter 86: China and India
  • Chapter 87: Targeting overseas markets
  • Chapter 88: Managing international business
  • Chapter 89: Digital technology
• Section 10: Managing strategic change
• • Chapter 90: Causes and value of change
  • Chapter 91: The flexible organisation
  • Chapter 92: Barriers to change
  • Chapter 93: Organisational culture
  • Chapter 94: Strategic implementation
  • Chapter 95: Network analysis and strategic implementation
  • Chapter 96: Problems with strategy
  • Chapter 97: Understanding assessment objectives
  • Chapter 98: Tackling data response questions
  • Chapter 99: How to revise for business exams
• Section 1: What is Business?
• • Chapter 1: Understanding the nature and purpose of business
  • Chapter 2: Different business forms
  • Chapter 3: Issues in understanding different business forms
  • Chapter 4: Understanding that businesses operate within an external environment
• Section 2: Managers, leadership and decision-making
• • Chapter 5: What managers do
  • Chapter 6: Types of management and leadership styles and their effectiveness
  • Chapter 7: Understanding management decision-making
  • Chapter 8: Decision trees
  • Chapter 9: Opportunity cost
  • Chapter 10: Understanding the role and importance of stakeholders
• Section 3: Decision-making to improve marketing performance
• • Chapter 11: Marketing and decision-making
  • Chapter 12: Marketing and competitiveness
  • Chapter 13: Setting marketing objectives
  • Chapter 14: Understanding markets
  • Chapter 15: Market research and sampling
  • Chapter 16: The interpretation of marketing data
  • Chapter 17…