41 of the Business glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A for-profit company certified by the non-profit B Lab as meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency, with its stakeholder commitments written into its governing documents.
Integration with a business at an earlier stage of production, such as a supplier of raw materials or components, to secure and control supplies.
A research question about something an organisation has already done, asking how successful or justified it has been, so that the project ends with a justified judgment.
The legal status of an individual, or in some countries a business, declared by a court to be unable to pay their debts, after which their assets are sold to repay creditors.
A chart in which data for separate categories are shown as bars of equal width whose lengths are proportional to the values, drawn horizontally or vertically.
Factors that prevent or distort the transfer of a message between a sender and a receiver, so that it is not received or understood as intended.
Research carried out to increase knowledge and understanding, without a specific commercial product or use in mind.
A method of production in which a group of identical products is made together, with each batch completing one stage of production before moving to the next.
Dividing a market according to customers' behaviour towards a product, such as the benefits sought, usage rate, brand loyalty and the occasion of purchase.
Promotion that does not use paid mass media, such as sales promotions, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorship and personal selling, usually aimed at specific customers.
The process of comparing a business's products, processes or performance with those of the best-performing organisations, in its own or another industry, and adopting their practices in order to improve.
A systematic distortion in research results, caused by the way the sample is chosen or the data is collected, which makes the results unrepresentative of the population.
An alphabetical list, at the end of a piece of work, of the full references of every source used, so that each one can be traced.
Extremely large and complex sets of data, generated at high speed from many sources and in many formats, that need specialised technology and analytics to store, process and interpret.
Materials in a product, such as natural fibres, that are designed to biodegrade safely at the end of its life and return to the soil or water without causing harm.
The group of people elected by the shareholders to set the strategy of a company and oversee its management on their behalf.
A portfolio analysis tool that classifies a business's products or business units as stars, cash cows, question marks or dogs according to their relative market share and market growth rate.
A name, term, sign, symbol, design or combination of these that identifies the products of a business and distinguishes them from those of competitors.
The extent to which customers recognise or can recall a brand and know what it offers.
The process of strengthening a brand’s image and reach over time, for example by improving its products, investing in promotion and extending the brand to new products or markets.
The set of ideas, feelings and associations that customers hold about a brand, such as its quality, reliability, style or values.
The extent to which customers repeatedly buy one brand in preference to competing brands, even when rivals offer lower prices or new alternatives.
The financial worth of a brand, based on the extra revenue and profit it is forecast to earn because customers recognise and prefer it.
The process of creating, developing and managing a distinctive name, design and image for a product so that customers can identify it and develop positive associations with it.
A decision-making tool that uses fixed costs, variable costs and selling price to find the output at which total revenue equals total cost, and the profit or loss at other outputs.
A graph showing a business's fixed cost, total cost and total revenue lines against output, on which the break-even point is where the total revenue and total cost lines intersect.
The level of output at which total revenue equals total cost, so that the business makes neither a profit nor a loss; fixed costs divided by contribution per unit.
The value of sales at which total revenue equals total cost; the break-even quantity multiplied by the selling price.
A quantitative financial plan, agreed in advance, that sets out the expected revenues and costs of a business or a part of it for a future period.
The manager who is responsible for a particular budget and accountable for explaining any differences between its budgeted and actual figures.
The minimum level of stock a business aims to hold at all times as a safety margin against late deliveries or unexpectedly high usage.
A BCG strategy of investing heavily in a product, usually a question mark, to increase its market share so that it becomes a star.
An organisational system that relies on formal rules, written procedures, paperwork and a clear hierarchy of authority, which can make decision-making slow and inflexible.
An organisation that uses resources such as land, labour, capital and enterprise to produce goods or services that meet the needs and wants of customers.
A wealthy individual who invests their own money in a small, new business with high growth potential, usually in return for a share of the ownership.
The ability of an organisation to keep its essential activities running, or restore them quickly, during and after a disruption; a business continuity plan sets out how this will be done.
The four main areas of activity within a business: human resources, finance and accounts, marketing, and operations, which depend on each other.
A written document that sets out the aims of a new or existing business, the strategies it will use to reach them, and the resources and finance it needs, usually with forecasts for the next three to five years.
A report of at most 1,800 words that applies business management tools and theories to a real issue facing one organisation, using one key concept as a lens and three to five supporting documents.
A market in which businesses sell goods or services to other businesses, such as machinery, raw materials or accounting services, rather than to final consumers.
A market in which businesses sell goods or services directly to individual consumers for their own use, such as food, clothing or streaming subscriptions.