Business Studies for A Level (4th Edition)

Description

Ian Marcousé, the expert Business Studies author, is back with a new edition of his bestselling Business Studies for A Level textbook. This fourth edition continues to offer unrivalled depth and authority, giving you the best possible preparation for success in Business Studies.

This new edition features hundreds of new and updated case studies of business success and failure that demonstrate how business theory plays out in the real world and provides up-to-date coverage of the recent world economic and financial events.

Key Features

• Hundreds of new case studies that can be used for homework or the classroom
• Up-to-date with recent world economic and financial events and putting them into the context of Business Studies
• Ian Marcouse is the most widely recognized name in Business Studies publishing
• A fresh new design that will aid revision and build analysis and evaluation skills
• Dynamic Learning Online support, anytime, anywhere
• Authoritative and in-depth coverage will give you the knowledge of business studies to achieve the very best grades

Table of Contents

1. Starting a business
2. Enterprise and entrepreneurs
3. Identifying business opportunities
4. Building demand and managing supply
5. Protecting business ideas
6. Developing business plans
7. Choosing the right legal structure
8. Location factors for a business start-up
9. Employing people
10. Opportunity cost and trade-offs
11. Economic factors affecting business start-up
12. Assessing business start-up Introduction to finance
13. Introduction to finance
14. Calculating revenue, costs and profit
15. Break-even analysis
16. Cash flow management and forecasting
17. Sources of finance
18. Budgets and budgeting
19. Measuring and increasing profit
20. Cash flow vs profit
21. Managing working capital Introduction to marketing
22. Effective marketing objectives and strategy
23. Market research
24. Understanding markets
25. Niche versus mass marketing
26. Designing an effective marketing mix
27. Product and product differentiation
28. Product life cycle and portfolio analysis
29. Pricing
30. Price elasticity of demand
31. Promotion and place
32. The marketing mix and social trends
33. Marketing and competitiveness Introduction to people in organisations
34. Productivity and performance
35. Motivation in theory
36. Motivation in practice
37. Leadership and management styles
38. Organisational structure
39. Recruitment and training
40. Measuring the effectiveness of the workforce Introduction to managing operations
41. Introduction to operations management
42. Invention, innovation and design
43. Customer service
44. Effective quality management
45. Working with suppliers
46. Stock control
47. Lean management
48. Capacity utilisation and capital intensity
49. Making operational decisions
50. Using technology in operations Corporate objectives and strategies
51. Corporate objectives and strategies
52. Corporate aims, mission and culture
53. Functional objectives and strategy
54. Responsibilities to stakeholders and society Advanced accounting and finance
55. Financial objectives and constraints
56. Income statements (profit and loss accounts)
57. Balance sheets
58. Ratio analysis
59. Limitations of accounts
60. Financial strategies and accounts
61. Investment appraisal
62. Integrated finance Advanced marketing
63. Understanding marketing objectives
64. Analysing markets
65. Measuring and forecasting trends
66. Selecting marketing strategies
67. Developing and implementing marketing plans
68. Integrated marketing Advanced people in organisations
69. Understanding HRM objectives and strategies
70. Workforce planning
71. Flexibility and insecurity
72. Employee participation and team working
73. Effective employer/employee relations
74. Integrated people in organisations Advanced operations management
75. Understanding operational objectives
76. Economies and diseconomies of scale
77. Innovation and research and development
78. Industrial and international location
79. Planning operations (including CPA)
80. Kaizen (continuous improvement)
81. Integrated operations management Advanced external influences
82. Introduction to external influences
83. Impact on firms of economic variables
84. Globalisation and development
85. Impact of government economic policy
86. Government policies affecting business
87. How firms respond to potential and actual changes
88. Business ethics
89. Business and the environment
90. Business and the technological environment
91. Impact of competitive and market structure
92. Changes in ownership and competitive structure
93. China vs India
94. Integrated external influences on business strategy Managing change
95. Causes of and planning for change
96. Organisational culture
97. Making strategic decisions
98. Implementing and managing change
99. Integrated approach to change and the business environment

Author Biography

Ian Marcousé is a former Chief Examiner for Business Studies for a major awarding body and is an experienced teacher. He is Founding Editor of Business Review magazine and his previous books include The Complete A-Z Business Studies Handbook. The author team for the new edition is: Ian Marcouse, Andrew Gillespie, Malcolm Surridge, Naomi Birchall, Marie Brewer, Andrew Hammond and Nigel Watson.