CAIE Alevel商务核心概念有哪些？我们都替你总结好了Alevel商务整体难度不算很高，很多同学都感觉平时都学明白了，但是考试却不太容易出高分，这是为什么呢？
一个最主要的原因就是这门科目需要记忆的概念非常多，而且每一个概念相关联的知识点也是非常的多，因此宝宝们在复习备考和做题时总会有一种无从下手，力不从心的感觉。
Alevel商务里有一些概念属于核心概念，替大家总结好了。
但友情提示大家：这些概念可以给大家的复习提供参考，但是千万不要认为知道了这些概念就算掌握了，每一个概念衍生出来的所有分知识点，也是必须要掌握的哦！
CAIE Alevel商务 核心概念（AS篇）
Above-the-line promotion: a form of promotion that is undertaken by a business by paying for communication with consumers
Accounts payable: value of debts for goodsbought on credit payable to suppliers; a.k.a. trade payable
Accounts receivable: the value of payments to be received by customers who have bought goods on credit; a.k.a. trade receivables
Acid-test ratio: (current assets –inventory)/current liabilities
Added value: the difference between thecost of purchasing raw materials and the price the finished goods are sold for.
Advertising: paid-for communication with consumers to inform and persuade
Articles of Association: this document covers the internal workings and control of the business – for example, the names of directors and the procedures to be followed at meetings will be detailed.
Arithmetic mean: calculated by totaling all the results and dividing by the number of results
Asset: an item of monetary value that is owned by a business
Asset-led marketing: an approach to marketing that bases strategy on the firm’s existing strengths and assets instead of purely on what the customers want
Autocratic leadership: a style of leadership that keeps all decision-making at the center of the organization
Bad debt: unpaid customers’ bills that are now very unlikely to ever be paid
Balance sheet: an accounting statementthat records the values of a business’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at one point of time
Bar chart: use bands of equal width but of varying length or height to represent relative values.
Batch production: producing a limited number of identical products – each item in the batch passes through one stage of production before passing on to the next stage
Below-the-line promotion: promotion that is not adirectly paid-for means of communication, but based on short-term incentives to purchase
Brand: an identifying symbol, name, image or trademark that distinguishes a product from its competitors
Branding: the strategy of differentiating products from those of competitors by creating an identifiable image and clear expectations about a product
Break-even point of production: the level of output at which total costs equal total revenue – neither a profit nor loss is made
Buffer stocks: the minimum stocks that should be held to ensure that production could still take place should a delay in delivery occur or should production rates increase
Business plan: a detailed document giving evidence about a new or existing business, and that aims to convince external lenders and investors to extend finance to the business
Capital: factor of production including all man-made resources used by a business
Capital employed: the total value of all long-term finance invested in the business
Capital expenditure: involves the purchase of assets that are expected to last for more than one year, such as building and machinery
Capital goods: the physical goods used by industry to aid in the production of other goods and services, such as machines.
Cash flow: the sum of cash payments to a business (inflows) less the sum of cash payments (outflows)
Cash flow forecast: estimate of a firm’s future cash inflows and outflows
Cash flow statement: record of the cash received by a business over a period of time and the cash outflows from the business
Cash inflows: payments in cash received by the business
Cash outflows: payments in cash made by the business
Channel of distribution: the chain of intermediaries a product passes through from producer to final consumer
Closed questions: questions to which a limited number of pre-set answers is offered
Closing cash balance: cash held at the end of the month; it becomes next month’s opening balance
Cluster sampling: using one or a number of specific groups to draw samples from and not selecting from the whole population, e.g. using one town or region
Command economy: economic resources owned, planned and controlled by public sector
Commission: a payment to a salesperson for each sale made
Competition-based pricing: a firm will base its price upon the price set by its competitors
Consumer goods: the physical and tangible goods sold to the general public; include durable (can be used morethan once) consumer goods, such as cars and washing machines, and non-durable (canbe used once) consumer goods, such as food and drinks.
Consumer markets: markets for goods and services bought by the final use of them
Consumer profile: a quantified picture ofconsumers of a firm’s products, showing proportions of age groups, income levels, location, gender and social class
Consumer services: the non-tangible products sold to the general public (include hotel accommodation, insurance, train journeys etc.)
Contribution per unit: selling price less variable cost per unit
Contribution-cost pricing: setting prices based onthe variable costs of making a product in order to make a contribution towards fixed costs and profit
Corporate social responsibility(CSR): this concept applies to those businesses that consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their decisions and activities on customers, employees, communities and the environment
Cost of sales: a.k.a. cost of goods sold; the direct cost of purchasing the goods that were sold during the financial year
Credit control: monitoring of debts toensure that credit periods are not exceeded
Creditors: suppliers who have agreed to supply products on credit and who have not yet been paid
Current assets: assets that are likely tobe turned into cash before the next balance sheet date
Current liabilities: debts of the business that will usually have to be paid within one year
Current ratio: current assets/current liabilities
Customer relationship marketing(CRM): using marketing activities to establish successful customer relationships so that existing customer loyalty can be maintained
Debtors: customers who have bought products on credit and will pay cash at an agreed date in the future
Demand: the quantity of products consumers are willing and able to buy at a certain price for a particular period of time, ceteris paribus
Democratic leadership: a leadership style that promotes the active participation of workers in decision making
Direct costs: these costs can be clearlyidentified with each unit of production and can be allocated to a cost centre
Diseconomies of scale: factors that cause average costs of production to rise when the scale of operation is increased
Dismissal: being dismissed or sacked from a job due to incompetence or breach of discipline
Dividends: the share of the profitspaid to shareholders as a return for investing in the company
Economic order quantity: the optimum or least-costquantity of stock to re-order taking into account the delivery costs andstock-holding costs
Economies of scale: reduction in a firm’s average costs of production that results from an increase in the scale of operations
Effectiveness: meeting the objectives ofthe enterprise by using inputs productively to meet customers’ needs
Efficiency: producing output at the highest ratio of output to input
Emotional intelligence: the ability of managers to understand their own emotions, and those of the people they work with, to achieve better business performance
Employment contract: a legal document that sets out the terms and conditions governing a worker’s job
Entrepreneur: someone who takes the financial risk of starting and managing a new venture
Enterprise: a factor of production including the driving force of a business, the risk-taking and decision-making unit of a business which organizes the other three factors of production.
Equilibrium price: the market price that equates supply and demand for a product
Equity finance: permanent finance raised by companies through the sale of shares
Ethical code of conduct: a document detailing acompany’s rules and guidelines on staff behavior that must be followed by all employees
Ethics: the moral guidelines that determine decision-making
Extension strategies: these are marketing plans to extend the maturity stage of the product before a brand new one is needed
Factoring: selling of claims overdebtors to a debt factor in exchange for immediate liquidity – only aproportion of the value of the debts will be received as cash
Fixed costs: costs that do not vary with output in the short run
Flexi-time contract: employment contract that allows staff to be called in at times most convenient to employers and employees, e.g. at busy times of the day
Flow production: producing items in a continually moving process
Focus groups: a group of people who are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, advertisement or new style of packaging
Franchise: a business that uses the name, logo, and trading systems of an existing successful business
Free market economy: economic resources owned largely by the private sector with no or little state intervention
Full-cost pricing: setting a price by calculating a unit cost for the product (allocated fixed and variable costs) and then adding a fixed profit margin
Goodwill: arises when a business is valued at or sold for more than the balance sheet value of its assets
Gross profit: equal to sales revenueless cost of sales
Gross profit margin: gross profit/sales revenue* 100
Hard HRM: an approach of managing staff that focuses on cutting costs, e.g. temporary and part-time employment contracts, offering maximum flexibility but with minimum training costs
High-quality profit: profit that can be repeated and sustained
Hire purchase: an asset is sold to acompany that agrees to pay fixed repayments over an agreed time period – the asset belongs to the company
Histograms: it is not the height of each bar that represents relative values, but the area of each bar.
Hourly wage rate: payment to a worker made for each hour worked
Human resource management (HRM): the strategic approach to the effective management of an organization’s workers so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage
Hygiene factors: aspects of a worker’s job that have the potential to cause dissatisfaction, such as pay, working conditions, status and over-supervision by managers
Income statement: records the revenue, costsand profit (or loss) of a business over a given period of time
Indirect costs: costs that cannot be identified with a unit of production or allocated accurately to a cost center
Induction training: introductory training programme to familiarize new recruits with the systems used in the business and the layout of the business site
Industrial markets: markets for goods and services bought by businesses to be used in the production process of other products
Informal leader: a person who has no formal authority but has the respect of colleagues and some power over them
Insolvent: when a business can not meet its short-term debts
Intangible assets: items of value that do nothave a physical presence, such as patents and trademarks
Integrated marketing mix: the key marketing decisions complement each other and work together to give customers a consistent message about the product
Internal growth: expansion of a business by means of opening new branches, shops or factories (a.k.a. organic growth)
Internet marketing: the marketing of products over the Internet
Inter-quartile range: the range of the middle 50% of the data
Inventory: stock held by the business in the form of materials, work in progress and finished goods
Job description: a detailed list of the key points about the job to be filled – stating all its key tasks and responsibilities
Job enlargement: attempting to increase the scope of a job by broadening or deepening the tasks undertaken
Job enrichment: aims to use the full capabilities of workers by giving them the opportunity to do more challenging and fulfilling work
Job redesign: involves the restructuring of a job – usually with employees’ involvement and agreement – to make workmore interesting, satisfying and challenging
Job production: producing a one-off itemspecially designed for the customer
Job rotation: increasing the flexibilityof the workforce and the variety of work they do by switching from one job to another
Joint venture: two or more businesses agree to work closely together on a particular project and create a separate business division to do so
Just-in-time: this stock-control method aims to avoid holding stocks by requiring supplies to arrive just as they are needed in production and completed products are produced to order
Labor: factor of production, including the workforce of a business, both skilled and unskilled
Laissez-faire leadership: a leadership style that leaves much of the business decision making to the workforce – a “hands-off” approach and the reverse of the autocratic leadership
Land: factor of production, including all natural resources used by a business
Lead time: the normal time taken between ordering new stocks and their delivery
Leadership: the art of motivating agroup of people towards achieving a common objective
Leasing: obtaining the use of equipment orvehicles and paying a rental or leasing charge over a fixed period. This avoids the need for the business to raise long-term capital to buy the asset. Ownership remains with the leasing company.
Liability: a financial obligation of a business that it is required to pay in the future
Limited liability: the only potential loss a shareholder has if the company fails is the amount invested in the company, not the total wealth of the shareholder
Line graphs: most commonly used for showing changes in variables over a period of time; these are time-series graphs
Liquidation: when a firm ceases trading and its assets are sold for cash to pay suppliers and other creditors
Liquidity: the ability of a firm to be able to pay its short-term debts
Long-term bonds: bonds issued by companies to raise debt finance, often with a fixed rate of interest
Long-term loans: loans that do not have to repaid for at least one year
Low-quality profit: one-off profit that cannot easily repeated or sustained
Management by objectives (MBO): a method of coordinatingand motivating all staff in an organization by dividing its overall aim into specific targets for each department, manager and employee
Manager: responsible for setting objectives, organizing resources and motivating staff so that the organization’s aims are met
Margin of safety: the amount by which the sales level exceeds the break-even level of output
Marginal costs: the extra cost of producing one more unit of output
Market capitalization: the total value of acompany’s issued shares
Market growth: the percentage change inthe total size of a market (volume or value) over a period of time
Market orientation: an outward-lookingapproach basing product decisions on consumer demand, as established by market research
Market research: this is the process of collecting, recording and analyzing data about the customers, competition and the market
Market segment: a sub-group of a wholemarket in which consumers have similar characteristics
Market segmentation: identifying different segments within a market and targeting different products or services to them
Market share: sales of the business as aproportion of total market sales
Market size: the total level of sales of all producers within a market
Market skimming: setting a high price for a new product when a firm has a unique or highly differentiated product with low elasticity of demand
Marketing: the management task that links the business to the customer by identifying and meeting the needs of customers profitably – it does this by getting the right product at the right price to the right place at the right time
Marketing mix: the four key decisions that must be taken in the effective marketing of a product
Marketing objectives: the goals set for the marketing department to help the business achieve its overall objectives
Marketing strategy: long-term plan established for achieving marketing objectives
Mark-up pricing: adding a fixed mark-up for profit to the unit price of a product
Mass customization: the use of flexible computer-aided production systems to produce items to meet individual customers’ requirements at mass production cost levels
Mass marketing: selling the same products to the whole market with no attempt to target groups within it
Median: the value of the middle item when data have been ordered or ranked. It divides the data into two equal parts
Memorandum of Association: a document stating the name of the company, the address of the head office through which it can be contacted, the maximum share capital for which the company seeks authorization and the declared aims of the business
Mission statement: a statement of the business’s core aims, phrased in a way to motivate employees and to stimulate interest by outside groups
Mixed economy: economic resources are owned and controlled by both private and public sectors
Mode: the value that occurs most frequentlyin a set of data
Motivating factors: aspects of a worker’s jobthat can lead to positive job satisfaction, such as achievement, recognition, meaningful and interesting work and advancement at work
Motivation: the internal and external factors that stimulate people to take actions that lead to achieving a goal
Multi-site location: a business that operates from more than one location
Multinational: a business with operations and production based in more than one country
Net monthly cash flow: estimated difference between monthly cash inflows and outflows
Net profit: gross profit minus overheads
Net profit margin: net profit/sales revenue *100
Niche marketing: identifying and exploitinga small segment of a larger market by developing products to suit it
Non-current assets: assets to be kept and used by the business for more than one year; a.k.a. fixed assets
Non-current liabilities: value of debts of the business that will be payable after more than one year
Off-the-job training: all training undertaken away from the business, e.g. work-related college courses
Offshoring: the relocation of abusiness process done in one country to the same or another company in another country
On-the-job training: instruction at the place of work on how a job should be carried out
Open questions: those that invite awide-ranging or imaginative response – the results will be difficult to collate and present numerically
Opening cash balance: cash held by the business at the start of the month
Operational flexibility: the ability of a business to vary both the level of production and the range of products following changes in customer demand
Operations planning: preparing input resources to supply products to meet expected demand
Opportunity cost: the benefit of the next most desired option which is given up
Optimal location: a business location that gives the best combination of quantitative and qualitative factors
Outsourcing: not employing staff directly, but using an outside agency or organization to carry out some business functions
Overdraft: bank agrees to a business borrowing up to an agreed limit as and when required
Overtrading: expanding a businessrapidly without obtaining all of the necessary finance so that a cash-flowshortage develops
Partnership: a business formed by two or more people to carry on a business together, with shared capital investment and, usually, shared responsibilities
Part-time employment contract: employment contract thatis for less than the normal full working week of, say, 40 hours, e.g. eight hours per week
Paternalistic leadership: a leadership style based on the approach that the manager is in a better position than the workers to know what is best for the organization
Penetration pricing: setting a relatively lowprice often supported by strong promotion in order to achieve a high volume ofsales
Performance-related pay: a bonus scheme to reward staff for above-average work performance
Person specification: a detailed list of the qualities, skills and qualifications that a successful applicant will need tohave
Personal selling: a member of the salesstaff communicates with one customer with the aim of selling the product andestablishing a long-term relationship between company and consumer
Pie chart: used to display data that need tobe presented in such a way that the proportions of the total are clearly shown
Piece rate: a payment to worker for each unit produced
Price elasticity of demand: a numerical measure showingthe responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price
Primary research: the collection offirst-hand data that is directly related to a firm’s needs
Primary sector: a sector of economic activity including businesses engaged in extraction of natural resources
Private limited company: a small or medium-size business that is owned by shareholders who are often members of the same family; cannot sell shares to the general public
Private sector: comprises of businesses owned and controlled by individuals or groups of individuals
Process innovation: the use of a new or much improved production method or service delivery method
Product: the end result of the production process sold on the market to satisfy a customer need
Product differentiation: making a product distinctive so that it stands out from competitors’ products in consumers’ perception
Product orientation: an inward-looking approach that focuses on making products that can be made – or have been made for a long time – and then trying to sell them
Product positioning: the pattern of sales recorded by a product from launch to withdrawal from the market
Production: converting inputs into outputs
Productivity: the ratio of outputs to inputs during production, e.g. output per worker per time period
Profit after tax: operating profit minus interest costs and corporation tax
Profit sharing: a bonus for staff based onthe profits of the business – usually paid as a proportion of basic salary
Promotion: the use of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, direct mail, trade fairs, sponsorship and public relations to inform consumers and persuade them to buy
Promotion budget: the financial amount made available by a business for spending on marketing/promotion during a certain time period
Promotion mix: the combination of promotional techniques that a firm uses to sell a product
Public corporation: a business enterprise owned and controlled by the state (a.k.a. nationalized industry)
Public limited company: a limited company, often alarge business, with the legal right to sell shares to the general public –share prices are quoted on the national stock exchange
Public relations: the deliberate use of free publicity provided by newspapers, TV and other media to communicate with and achieve understanding by the public
Public sector: comprises of organizations accountable to and controlled by central or local government
Qualitative factors: non-measurable factorsthat may influence business decisions
Qualitative research: research into the in-depth motivations behind consumer buying behavior or opinions
Quality circles: voluntary groups ofworkers who meet regularly to discuss work-related problems and issues
Quantitative factors: these are measurable in financial terms and will have a direct impact on either the costs of a site orthe revenues from it and its profitability
Quantitative research: research that leads to numerical results that can be statistically analyzed
Quota sampling: when the population has been stratified and the interviewer selects an appropriate number of respondents in each stratum
Random sampling: every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected
Range: the difference between the highest and the lowest value
Recruitment: the process of identifying the need for a new employee, defining the job to be filled and the type of person needed to fill it, attracting suitable candidates for the job and selecting the best one
Re-order quantity: the number of units ordered each time
Redundancy: when a job is no longer required, so the employee doing this job becomes redundant through no fault of his or her own
Retained profit: the profit left after all deductions, including dividends, have been made. This is “ploughed back” intothe company as a source of finance.
Revenue expenditure: spending on all costs andassets other than fixed assets and includes wages and salaries and materials bought for stock
Rights issue: existing shareholders are given the right to buy additional shares at a discounted price
Salary: annual income that is usually paid on a monthly basis
Sales promotion: incentives such as special offers or special deals directed at consumers or retailers to achieve short-term sales increases and repeat purchases by consumers
Sales turnover: total value of sales madeby a business in a given time period; a.k.a. sales revenue; equal to selling price X quantity sold
Sample: the group of people taking part in a market research survey selected to be representative of the overall target market
Scale of operation: the maximum output that can be achieved using the available inputs (resources) – this scale can only be increased in the long term by employing more of all inputs
Secondary research: collection of data from second-hand sources
Secondary sector: a sector of economic activity where resources extracted by primary sector businesses are processed and manufactured into final goods
Self-actualization: a sense ofself-fulfillment reached by feeling enriched and developed by what one has learned and achieved
Share: a certificate confirming partownership of a company and entitling the shareholder owner dividends and certain shareholder rights
Share capital: the total value of capital raised from shareholders by the issue of shares
Shareholder: a person or institution owning shares in a limited company
Shareholders’ equity: total value of assets minus total value of liabilities
Social audit: a report on the impact a business has on society (it could cover pollution levels, health and safety record, source of supplies, customer satisfaction and contribution to the community)
Social enterprise: a business with mainly social objectives that reinvests most of its profits into benefiting society rather than maximizing returns to owners
Societal marketing: this approach considersnot only the demands for consumers but also the effects on all members of the public (society) involved in some way when firms meet these demands
Soft HRM: an approach to managing staff that focuses on developing staff so that they reach self-fulfillment and are motivated to work hard and stay with the business
Sole trader: a business in which one person provides the permanent finance and, in return, has full control of the business and is able to keep all of the profits
Sponsorship: payment by a company to the organizers of an event so that the company name becomes associated with the event
Staff appraisal: the process of assessing the effectiveness of an employee judged against pre-set objectives
Stakeholder: people or groups of people who can be affected by, and therefore have an interest in any action by anorganization
Stakeholder concept: the view that businesses and their managers have responsibilities to a wide range of groups, not just shareholders
Start-up capital: capital needed by an entrepreneur to set up a business
Stock: materials and goods required to allow for the production and supply of products to the customer
Stratified sampling: this draws a sample from a specified sub-group or segment of the population and uses random sampling to select an appropriate number from each stratum
Supply: the quantity of products producers are willing and able to sell at a certain price for a particular period oftime, ceteris paribus
Systematic sampling: every nth item in the target population is selected
Target pricing: setting a price that will give a required rate of return at a certain level of output/sales
Teleworking: staff working from home but keeping contact with the office by means of modern IT communications
Temporary employment contract: employment contract that lasts for a fixed time period, e.g. six months
Tertiary sector: a sector of economic activity including businesses engaged in providing services to customers
Team working: production is organized so that groups of workers undertake complete units of work
Trade barriers: taxes (tariffs) or other limitations on the free international movement of goods and services
Training: work-related education to increase workforce skills and efficiency
Triple bottom line: the three objectives of social enterprise (economic, social and environmental)
Unfair dismissal: ending a worker’s employment contract for a reason that the law regards as being unfair
Unique selling point (USP): the special feature of a product that differentiates it from competitors’ products
Variable costs: costs that vary with achange in output
Venture capital: risk capital invested inbusiness start-ups or expanding small businesses that have good profit potential but do not find it easy to gain finance from other sources
Viral marketing: the use of social networking sites or SMS text messages to increase brand awareness or sell products
Window dressing: presenting the company accounts in a favorable light – to flatter the business performance
Worker participation: workers are actively encouraged to become involved in decision making within the organization
Workforce audit: a check on the skills and qualifications of all existing managers/employees
Workforce planning: analyzing and forecasting the numbers of workers and the skills of those workers that will be required by the organization to achieve its objectives
Working capital: the capital needed topay for day-to-day running costs and credit offered to customers. It is equal to current assets minus current liabilities.
