school resources - 1.5

• what is a stakeholder?


  anyone who is affected by a business
• how does a pressure group influence a firm's activities?

  by influencing what people think and creating bad publicity or accouraging them to take positive action
• four stakeholders in a business

  • managers
  • government
  • customers
  • employees
• how does E-commerce increase the businesses' costs?

  the entrepreneur needs to invest money to build websites,employ IT specialists and develop systems to distribute products to online customers
• three ways a business can communicate digitally

  • email
  • communication apps
  • live chats
• why is social media a good form of communication for businesses?

  it is easy to share information with users + lots of information can be displayed

  • also to provide customer service
• 3 different payment systems

  • online payments (debit/credit card, paypal)
  • chip and pin
  • contactless payments
• how are faster payments more beneficial to a business?

  it encourages people to buy more from the business
• New technology made positive impacts of a business eg. e-commerce may boost a firm's sales and can reach a bigger market. Modern payment systems also leads to more sales as they are fast, encouraging people to buy more from the business
• new technology can affect marketing mix eg. e-commerce means customers have more choice of firms to buy from as they can buy from firms in places all over the world
• law states that a business must pay its employees a minimum amount/wage
• if a business discriminates against its workers they'll have to pay compensation
• businesses are legally obliged to provide employees with necessary safety equipment
• if a business fails to follow health and safety laws, they can be prosecuted,fined and closed down. They may have to pay compensation to anyone who's injured and could get bad publicity
• in order to follow customer law. goods must be

  • fit for purpose
  • should match its description
  • product must be of satisfactory quality
• breaking customer law may be expensive for a business because customers may ask for their money back, a repair or replacement
• some businesses benefit from high unemployment as they're paying lower wages and people can fill jobs more easily
• two negative impacts of high unemployment :

  • people have less disposable income --> leads to a lack of demand for products so sales fall
  • people can lose skills while they're unemployed so firms may need to retrain them
• businesses have to pay tax on their profits. They also have to pay environmental tax. If the amount of tax customers have to pay increases, it reduces their sales as customers have less money to spend on luxury goods
• inflation - an increase in price of goods and services
• if inflation increases, the consumer spending will decrease on luxury items as they would rather spend their money on what they need. the demand for these goods would therefore increase
• a business that could suffer if inflation is rising at a faster rate than incomes is a business that provides luxuries
• if interest rates fall, consumer spending increases
• a firm with a lot of loans will be affected by rising interest rates because they'll be paying higher rates for money they borrowed. They're also likely to save more to take advantage for higher returns
• exchange rate - the value that tells you how much one unit of a currency costs in a different country
• a weak pound can benefit British companies that export goods because they become less expensive resulting in more sales and higher profits for British companies
• A strong pound can benefit British businesses that import goods because the imports are cheaper. British firms that import raw materials will be able to make products more cheaply so the profits may go up