Business in Context 4e

An Introduction to Business and its Environment
David Needle, Head of Postgraduate and Corporate Programmes, East London Business School
ISBN-13: 9781861529923
ISBN: 1861529929

Business in Context 4e provides an introduction to the business environment and the key functions of business placed within a managerial, organizational and environmental context.Offering a dynamic and contemporary global perspective on business, key issues are debated and supported by practical cases from well-known international companies. The latest edition of David Needle's best-selling functional business environment text has been thoroughly revised and rewritten, with expanded coverage of management, new chapters on globalization and ethics, new cases, improved pedagogy and text design, and increased web support for the lecturer and student.

Chapter Abstracts

• Ch. 1 The Concept of Business in Context 
  Chapter One covers business as a broadly-based and varied activity; the key activities of business and the relationships between them; the strategic, organizational and environmental contexts within which business operates; the complex interactions that operate within and between business activities and their contexts; the Business in Context model to analyse a variety of business situations and cases and systems and contingency theories as they apply to business and assess their contribution to an understanding of business
• Ch. 2 Globalization 
  Chapter Two covers globalization and the key issues and debates associated with it; the different perspectives on globalization; the main causes and drivers of globalization in an historic perspective; the links between globalization and the development of the multinational and transnational corporations; the links between globalization and the emergence of strategic alliances and joint ventures as a dominant business form; key success criteria for strategic alliances and joint ventures; the impact of globalization on the economy and on the production of goods and services; the relationship between globalization and political change, particularly the creation of political alliance; the relationship between globalization and culture change and the limitations to globalization
• Ch. 3 The Environment and Business: Economy, State, Technology and Labour 
  Chapter Three covers aspects of the environment that most influence and are influenced by business and assess the relative importance of those influences over time; the different aspects of the environment interacting with each other and with business; the main differences between Anglo-Saxon, social market, Asian and transitional models of capitalism and their impact on the economy and the role of the state; the concepts of GDP, FDI and deindustrialization; the types of state intervention and the problems associated with them; the role of the business community as a pressure group; the significance of and issues related to economic and political integration in a modern global economy; the impact of changing technology, more especially information and communications technology and e-commerce on business competitiveness and on the labour market and changing trends in both the labour market and trade unions and assess the impact of globalization upon them
• Ch. 4 Cultural Influences and Business 
  Chapter Four covers culture and its different forms; the relative impact of convergence and cultural diversity on business practices and their relevance to the modern manager; the links between convergence and globalization; the contribution of Geert Hofstede to an understanding of culture and business; the value of culture in explaining business behaviour; the relative importance of those factors, which have contributed to the growth and decline of the Japanese economy and the lessons they hold for managers generally and the process of Japanization
• Ch. 5 Organizational Aspects of Business 
  Chapter Five covers the interrelationships between goals, structure, ownership, size, and organizational and corporate culture, the nature of goals, the role they play, and the causes and consequences of goal conflict in organizations, the factors influencing organizational structure, the different types of structure and assess the suitability of different types of structure in different situations, the relationship between structure and performance, and recent trends in structure, including delayering, down-sizing and the flexible firm, the different forms of ownership and the relationship between ownership and control, the differences between management and control in the public and private sectors and the impact of privatization, the impact of organizational size on business behaviour, the small firm and assess its role in relation to owners, customers and the economy and the difference between organizational and corporate culture, and critically assess the contribution of these concepts to organizational performance
• Ch. 6 Management and Leadership 
  Chapter Six covers management and the difficulties inherent in such definitions, the wide range of management roles and managerial behaviour, the reasons for the 'manager's right to manage', the various models of management and the reasons for their change over time, the contribution of key writers and a critique of the main theoretical models, management activities and their link to the theoretical models, the differences between management and leadership, the significance of leadership to modern management and the different theories of leadership in the context of modern organizations
• Ch. 7 Management Strategy 
  Chapter Seven covers the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to strategy and how they interact, the uses of strategy in different organization contexts, simple models to assess the general and immediate competitive environments of an organization and demonstrate the limitations of such models, the links between strategy, goals, structure, ownership, size and culture at the level of the firm, the concepts and assess the value of resource analysis, core competence, value chain and portfolio analysis and the various kinds of strategic option and demonstrate the basis for the selection of a particular strategy in different situations
• Ch. 8 Business Ethics and Coroprate Social Responsibility 
  Chapter Eight covers business ethics and corporate social responsibility and the relationship between them, the historical and theoretical origins of business ethics, the complexities involved in doing business ethically, the issues involved in corporate social responsibility between the firm and its numerous stakeholders, the arguments for doing business ethically and the various mechanisms used in organizations for ethical business and corporate social responsibility
• Ch. 9 Innovation 
  Chapter Nine covers the concepts and activities of invention, innovation, entrepreneurship and research and development (R&D), how innovation is the product of the interaction of a number of environmental and organizational variables, the relationship between innovation and other functional areas of business such as operations and marketing, the different types of innovation and forms of R&D, the meaning of entrepreneurship and the role of the entrepreneur and the key variables influencing entrepreneurial success, the contribution of innovation to a firm's profitability and nation's economic growth, the role of state intervention in innovation and assess its contribution, the link between innovation and technology, assess the relative influence on innovation of organization size, structure and culture, the different strategic approaches to innovation and the difference between tacit and explicit forms of knowledge and their contribution to innovation
• Ch. 10 Operations 
  Chapter Ten covers the key objectives of operations and their contribution to competitive advantage and explain the conflicting nature of those objectives, the difference between the operations function in a manufacturing and service organization, operations as a system and as a transformational process, the key actitivities of operations management and assess their contribution to organizational effectiveness, the problems and issues involved in planning and control, the different approaches to quality control, supply chain management and just-in-time, the link between technology, the design of operations systems and the impact of jobs, the impact of operations on the size and structure of the organization and operations strategies
• Ch. 11 Marketing 
  Chapter Eleven covers marketing and trace its development as an area of activity, the operation of marketing in a number of different contexts, the various elements of marketing, how these elements form the basis of the marketing mix and articulate how this operates, the various approaches to buyer behaviour, the significance of branding and market segmentation and the value of the product life-cycle, the role of marketing in relation to the economy, the state and technological change, the factors influencing the operation of marketing in different organizational contexts and different marketing strategies
• Ch. 12 Human Resource Management 
  Chapter Twelve covers personnel management and HRM and distinguish between the two, the developments associated with HRM, the key activities associated with HRM and how they are carried out, the key external changes and their impact upon HRM policies and practice, the role of the state and the role of the economy in relation to HRM, variations in HR practice due to cultural differences, the effectiveness of HRM in an organizational context and explain the barriers to effective performance and HRM strategies
• Ch. 13 Finance and Accounting 
  Chapter Thirteen covers the contribution of finance and accounting to business decisions, how to distinguish between different types of funding for business activities and assess their relevance, the contribution of management accounting to business decisions, the different types of financial report and explain their value to business decisions, the various stakeholders who can make use of published financial reports, differences in accounting practice around the world and a limited explanation, the impact of organization size and structure on accounting practices and the limitations of accounting information in its contribution to strategy