The term business is very broad and is used with a variety of meanings. While trying to develop the meaning of business relevant to the study of commerce and industry, we can in the meantime refer to it as some kind of human occupation, the numerous and varied activities that man undertakes during his life time. It is an enterprise that provides products or services which are desired by customers. Customers are the users of the products or services. Human activities undertaken by man are so varied that we have to distinguish them to be able to arrive at those that would be referred to as business. They involve working to create wealth and are what we refer to as occupations or employment. Classical economic theory of business enterprise and behaviour explains the objective of a business in terms of profit maximization. However, contemporary economists realized that profit maximization is not the sole objective of a firm. On this, Joel Dean in his book “Managerial Economics, though restating the same position as that of classical economics, qualifies profit maximization as a business objective in the long run. A business may be organized by an individual as a sole proprietorship, or by an association of persons by mutual agreement as a partnership’ or by an association of persons who form a co-operative society for the purpose or by a number of persons as a joint-stock company and for all these to operate successfully, good leadership and management must be exhibited thereof. However, just like the business product itself, marketing is a phenomenon which needs to be studied and understood for success of a business.

Qn a) The term business is very broad and is used with a variety of meanings, with your understanding of the term, describe features that qualify an activity to be a business.

b) Contemporary economists realized that profit maximization is not the sole objective of a firm, with your knowledge of business, explain other reasons for the establishment and existence of a business.

c) A business may be organized in a variety of ways,

i) Examine the various ways you would form a partnership business.

ii) With examples, describe the different types of partnerships.

d) A business is successful only when it is properly managed. With your experience in business,

i) Discuss common factors that may affect a manager’s effectiveness.

ii) Delegation is key in the successful management of any business, advise a University business on how delegation can effectively be done.

e) Marketing mix is used to describe the major inputs that constitute the core of a company’s marketing system,

i) Examine the key functions played by the distribution channels in the marketing process.

ii) With examples, describe the various players in the distribution channels that facilitate the marketing of a business product in your country.

Suppose you own a plumbing repair business and employ 15 plumbers. You are interested in estimating the difference in the average number of calls completed per day between two of the plumbers. A random sample of 40 days of plumber A’s work results in a sample average of 5.3 calls, with a population variance of 1.99. A random sample of 37 days of plumber B’s work results in a sample mean of 6.5 calls, with a population variance of 2.36. Use this information and a 95% level of confi dence to estimate the difference in population mean daily efforts between plumber A and plumber B. Interpret the results. Is it possible that, for these populations of days, the average number of calls completed between plumber A and plumber B do not differ?