Netherlands HAVO 4 (bovenbouw, 2e fase) Business Economics
Chapters: 4
1. Skills
General skills · Business economics approach
- Research Skills: From a Question to a Finished Project – Research is a careful way of finding an answer. You ask a clear, focused question, plan how to answer it, find information and check that each source can be trusted, collect and analyse your own data, draw a conclusion that the evidence supports, and share it while crediting every source you used.
- Business Economics: How a Firm Thinks About Money – Business economics looks at a problem the way a manager of a firm does. A firm uses inputs (labour, capital, raw materials, the entrepreneur's ideas) to make output. Costs are fixed (rent, same every month) or variable (change with output). Revenue = price × quantity. Profit = revenue − total cost. Productivity = output ÷ input, for example glasses per hour. The break-even quantity = fixed cost ÷ (price − variable cost per unit). Every decision also touches stakeholders: customers, workers, owners, suppliers, lenders, government and the local community, and they may want different things.
2. From person to legal entity
Personal financial self-reliance · Starting a sole proprietorship · From sole trader to legal entity · Place of the organisation in society
- Smart Ways to Manage Your Finances – Inflation makes prices rise, so the same money buys less. Money kept in a bank earns interest: simple interest is paid only on the original amount, while compound interest also earns interest on earlier interest, so it grows faster over time. A budget plans income into needs, wants and savings. Savings are kept safe; investments can grow but carry risk, and higher possible returns mean higher risk. Insurance shares risk among many people. Income tax is paid on income above a limit, at rates that rise with income.
- Entrepreneurship Development – Entrepreneurship is starting a new business by spotting a need, putting resources together and taking the risk. India needs entrepreneurs for jobs, new ideas and balanced growth. The process runs from knowing yourself to launching and growing. Start-up India (2016) supports new firms, funding comes from savings, angels, venture capital, banks and crowdfunding, and intellectual property rights protect new ideas, brands and creative work.
- Sole Proprietorship, Partnership and Hindu Undivided Family Business – A sole proprietorship is owned and run by one person who takes all profit and bears unlimited liability. A partnership is run by two or more people who share profit under an agreement; its partners are of many kinds and a written deed and registration protect them. A Hindu Undivided Family business is run by the eldest member, the karta, for all family members, who become members by birth.
- Business Organisation: Forms, Structure and Leadership – An organisation is a group of people working together for a goal. A business can be one owner, a partnership, a company or a co-operative, and the legal form decides who carries the debt. Inside, the structure (tall, flat or by department) shows who reports to whom, managers plan, organise, lead and control, and leaders can decide alone, with the team, or leave a free hand.
3. Internal organisation and personnel
Internal organisation · Personnel policy (HRM)
- Business Organisation: Forms, Structure and Leadership – An organisation is a group of people working together for a goal. A business can be one owner, a partnership, a company or a co-operative, and the legal form decides who carries the debt. Inside, the structure (tall, flat or by department) shows who reports to whom, managers plan, organise, lead and control, and leaders can decide alone, with the team, or leave a free hand.
- Human Resource Management (HRM) – Human resource management is planning, finding, developing, rewarding and keeping the people a business needs. HR objectives include employee engagement, talent development, training, diversity, alignment of values and a right-sized, cost-effective workforce. HR performance is measured with labour turnover (leavers ÷ average staff × 100), retention rate, labour productivity (output ÷ workers), labour cost per unit and employee costs as a percentage of revenue. Hard HRM treats staff as a cost; soft HRM treats them as an asset.
4. Marketing
Aims and organisation of marketing · Marketing policy
- Marketing Management – Marketing means finding out what buyers need and meeting that need in exchange for value, at a profit. It has many functions (research, planning, branding, labelling, packaging, pricing, promotion, distribution, service) and five philosophies (production, product, selling, marketing, societal). The marketing mix is the 4Ps: product (with branding, labelling, packaging), price (shaped by cost, demand, competition, government rules, objectives and marketing methods), place (channels and physical distribution) and promotion (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations).