Edexcel Business A Level Revision

Niche market - A smaller segment of a larger market where customers have specific needs and wants. Global market niches are subcultures in world society. These share common interests and can be identified as market segments on a global scale. Although a niche tagets a smaller market, on a global scale, this can be sizeable. This is particularly profitable when we recognise that these are likely to highly differentiated products rather than low costs. This means that the world's wealthiest consumers can be targeted, with the quality of the product being the most important factor. Other common features of a global niche market include; Requires high levels of customer service as demanding customers pay for quality not quantity Highly skilled employees with the expertise and, at times, the reputation required to create and sell the desired products Product innovation is essential in order to product the highly differentiated products that customers require A high level...

Corporate culture - The values, beliefs and standards shared by people and groups within an organisation. These will impact on the way that people within the organisation interact with each other and with other stakeholders. "The way we do things around here" - Charles Handy The culture of a business is reflected in many ways, e.g; How employees are recruited - the cultural factors that make one applicant more suitable than another  The way that visitors and guests are looked after How the working space is organised The degree of delegation and individual responsibility (effects decision making) How long new employees stay in a business (retention) How contracts are negotiated and agreed The personality and style of the sales force The responsiveness of communication (impacts staff motivation) The methods used for communication (impacts staff motivation) How staff address each other (first name, last name etc) The speed in which decisions are made (effects de...

Short-termism - where a business prioritises its short term reward rather than long term rewards such as investment in research and development, staff or technology. Long-termism -  where a business is focused on sustained growth through building long term relationships with suppliers and other external stakeholders, significant investment in research and development, perhaps at the expense of shareholder returns/dividends in the short term, and meeting customer needs despite short term needs. SHORT-TERMISM Management who can be described as "SHORT-TERMIST" tend to emphasise certain performance measures, such as: Share price Revenue growth Gross & operating profit Unit costs & productivity Return on capital employed As a possible consequence, other more longer-term measures of business performance might become less important, such as: Market share Quality Innovation Brand reputation Development of employee skills & experience Social responsi...

Competitive advantage - An advantage over the competitors gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher price. Distinctive Capabilities - Proposed by Professor John Kay in 1993. The capabilities or special quality a business has which is product of the people employed there, which other firms cannot replicate even after they realise what the benefits are that owning the capability confers. For example, Land Rover's distinctive capability is its mastery of how aluminum can be used to build cars that are string but light. From this, can create a competitive advantage. For Land rover, the benefit has shone through in its Evoque series, which benefits hugely from an aluminum frame. That can feed through to an especially positive consumer image - for technology perhaps, or like Apple, for great design. For example, James Dyson's creation of a unique bag-less vacuum cleaner gave th...