IGCSE Business Studies: Enterprise, Business Growth, Size and Types of Organisations

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering enterprise, business growth, measuring business size, business plans, integration, and forms of business organisations from IGCSE Business Studies Chapters 3 and 4.

Entrepreneur

An individual who has an idea for a new business and takes the financial risk of starting it.

Enterprise

Seeing an opportunity to provide a product — a good or service — that people may be willing to buy.

Risk-taker

An entrepreneurial characteristic involving the willingness to take chances or risks while knowing that the idea may not work.

Determination / perseverance

An entrepreneurial characteristic of continuing to work on an idea and not giving up when things do not go as expected.

Business plan

A detailed written document setting out the aims and objectives of a business and what it intends to do to achieve them.

Grant

An amount of government financial support that may not need to be repaid.

Capital employed

The total value of all long-term finance invested in a business, used to buy assets such as factory buildings, office buildings, machinery, and inventory.

Internal growth

Growth achieved by the business itself, such as by increasing production capacity through more or better machinery, developing a new product, or finding new markets.

Integration

External growth that occurs when a business merges with or takes over another business.

Merger

When two businesses agree to join and become one larger business.

Takeover

When one business buys a controlling interest in another business.

Horizontal integration

When two businesses at the same stage of production join to become one larger business.

Vertical integration

When two businesses at different stages of production within the same industry join to become one larger business.

Forward vertical integration

When a business takes over or merges with a customer, such as a bread manufacturer joining with a bakery shop.

Backward vertical integration

When a business takes over or merges with a supplier, such as a bread manufacturer joining with a wheat farm.

Starbucks in Australia

A business case where a company closed two-thirds of its Australian shops after making a large loss because its products did not match Australian coffee preferences.

Sole trader

A business owned and controlled by one person.

Unlimited liability

A legal condition where the owner is fully responsible for the business's debts and may risk personal possessions to pay unpaid business debts.

Partnership

A business owned and controlled by two or more people.

Limited company

A business owned by shareholders.

Shareholder

A person or organisation that invests money in a company in exchange for shares.

Limited liability

A legal condition where owners are responsible for business debts only up to the amount they have invested in the company.

Private limited company

A business owned by shareholders whose shares cannot be freely sold to anyone.

Karma Drinks

A business using ethically sourced ingredients that started as a partnership and became a private limited company two years later.

Public limited company

A company owned by shareholders whose shares can be sold to the general public on the stock exchange.

Tao Kae Noi

A Thai seaweed snack business started by Itthipat Peeredechapan that grew from a private to a public limited company on the Thai Stock Exchange and used horizontal integration in the United States.

Franchise

A business agreement in which one business pays for the right to use another existing business's name, logo and products.

Franchisor

The existing successful business that allows another business to use its trade name, logo and products.

Franchisee

The business that receives the right to use the franchisor's name, logo and products.

Joint venture

An arrangement where two or more businesses agree to work together on a project and set up a separate business for this purpose while remaining separate organisations.

Jardine Schindler Group

A joint venture between Jardine Matheson and Schindler Group that combines the businesses' different skills and experience.

Social enterprise

A business with social objectives that reinvests most of its profits into the business or into benefiting society rather than distributing them to shareholders.

Tony's Chocolonely

A chocolate manufacturer based in the Netherlands that operates as a social enterprise, using ethically sourced cocoa and paying farmers more than the standard price.