in-class reflection review

• what is the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes/results?

  equality of opportunity is giving everyone the same opportunities, and equality of outcomes is setting quotas- assigning a race percentage for their company.
• what are the obstacles to equality of opportunity in a capitalist system?

  gender wage inequality, income inequality, race inequality
• what economic factors must be present to have perfect competition?

  • all firms sell an identical product
  • all firms are price-takers
  • all firms have a relatively small market share
  • buyers know the nature of the product being sold and the prices charged by each firm
  • freedom of entry and exit
• what things are not profitable, but useful to society?

  parks, education, fire protection, healthcare, disaster relief
• • us-style capitalism is closer to pure capitalism
  • german capitalism - stakeholder capitalism (stakeholders on the board of representatives)
  • japanese capitalism - strong state involvement in business, lifetime employment norm
  • canadian capitalism - more state involvement in the economy, stable relationship between business and government, higher union density
• what are the three types of business firms?

  sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations
• what are the different types of corporations?

  privately-owned, publicly-traded, and crown corporation
• who runs corporations?


  owners, boards of directors, and managers
• what are cooperatives?


  businesses owned and operated by a group of individuals

  • worker cooperatives (owned by the workers)
  • consumer cooperatives (owned by the consumers)
• what are the three domains of management?

  people, money, and managing other organizations and resources
• what are the three aspects to a value chain?

  inputs --> conversion process --> outputs
• what are the key functional areas of business?

  human resource management, finance, accounting, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing
• global business system includes...

  transnational corporations, international financial and trade institutions, and other(international NGOs and local countries and economies)
• globalization and the "race to the bottom"


  businesses are racing to the bottom, the lowest standard of working conditions, in order to have the lowest prices
• labor/working conditions in the garment and apparel industry

  • rise of fast fashion
  • high turnover
  • cheaper & easier than ever to buy
  • cheap labor is how they make money
  • many companies claim to have fixed their labor issues but then it comes out that they, in fact, did not
• who should we blame for these ongoing problems in the apparel industry?


  multinational companies, host countries, consumers, home countries, international institutions
• attempts to fix the problems in the apparel industry


  company-level policies and programs, global codes of conduct, and multi-stakeholder initiatives
• key dimensions of operations management


  quality, dependability, speed/flexibility, cost
• business as a contributor to climate change


  the cause for much of the carbon in the atmosphere, funding climate change skepticism, lobbying against regulation
• climate change's negative impacts on business


  changing the landscape of business

  • businesses that depend on water - ski resorts
  • tourism
  • commodity-based businesses
• business as part of the solution to climate change


  technological innovations

  • clean energy (wind, solar, carbon capture)
  • meat replacements
• how to limit the environmental harm caused by business


  regulations, laws, market-driven approaches, environmental NGOs, multi-stakeholder initiatives and standards, and corporate programs and policies
• steps of human resource management


  1. acquire members
  2. day-to-day operation
  3. member outcomes/training
• workplace inequality


  gender inequality

  • wage inequality
  • the power gap

  racial inequality
• the top three wage earners in the US make as much as the bottom half of americans
• income inequality facilitates innovation but causes an increase in health and social problems