Exploring Business

Every now and again, authors and publishers make a textbook that they had been selling available for free if only author or publisher or identified. This sort of orphaned work provides a free supplementary text for students but may not be something they could cite in a research paper. Hopefully, someone can utilize this free business textbook even if it would appear the title has been changed and it’s now a sort of anonymous work.

Exploring Business does just that – it offers and introductory course on business. The text was released, in its current form, in 2010. Some of the examples may be a bit dated, but reviews from educators indicate the text remains useful to their students – several continue to use it in their classes.

Table of Contents for Exploring Business

Chapter 1: The Foundations of Business

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Getting Down to Business

1.3 What Is Economics?

1.4 Perfect Competition and Supply and Demand

1.5 Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly

1.6 Measuring the Health of the Economy

1.7 Government’s Role in Managing the Economy

1.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 2: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

2.1 Misgoverning Corporations: An Overview

2.2 The Individual Approach to Ethics

2.3 Identifying Ethical Issues

2.4 The Organizational Approach to Ethics

2.5 Corporate Social Responsibility

2.6 Environmentalism

2.7 Stages of Corporate Responsibility

2.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 3: Business in a Global Environment

3.1 The Globalization of Business

3.2 Opportunities in International Business

3.3 The Global Business Environment

3.4 Trade Controls

3.5 Reducing International Trade Barriers

3.6 Preparing for a Career in International Business

3.7 Cases and Problems

Chapter 4: Selecting a Form of Business Ownership

4.1 Factors to Consider

4.2 Sole Proprietorship

4.3 Partnership

4.4 Corporation

4.5 Other Types of Business Ownership

4.6 Mergers and Acquisitions

4.7 Cases and Problems

Chapter 5: The Challenges of Starting a Business

5.1 What Is an Entrepreneur?

5.2 The Importance of Small Business to the U.S. Economy

5.3 What Industries Are Small Businesses In?

5.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Business Ownership

5.5 Starting a Business

5.6 The Business Plan

5.7 How to Succeed in Managing a Business

5.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 6: Managing for Business Success

6.1 What Do Managers Do?

6.2 Planning

6.3 Organizing

6.4 Directing

6.5 Controlling

6.6 Managerial Skills

6.7 Cases and Problems

Chapter 7: Recruiting, Motivating, and Keeping Quality Employees

7.1 Human Resource Management

7.2 Developing Employees

7.3 Motivating Employees

7.4 What Makes a Great Place to Work?

7.5 Performance Appraisal

7.6 Labor Unions

7.7 Cases and Problems

Chapter 8: Teamwork and Communications

8.1 The Team and the Organization

8.2 Why Teamwork Works

8.3 The Team and Its Members

8.4 The Business of Communication

8.5 Communication Channels

8.6 Forms of Communication

8.7 Cases and Problems

Chapter 9: Marketing: Providing Value to Customers

9.1 What Is Marketing?

9.2 The Marketing Mix

9.3 Pricing a Product

9.4 Placing a Product

9.5 Promoting a Product

9.6 Interacting with Your Customers

9.7 The Product Life Cycle

9.8 The Marketing Environment

9.9 Careers in Marketing

9.10 Cases and Problems

Chapter 10: Product Design and Development

10.1 What Is a Product?

10.2 Where Do Product Ideas Come From?

10.3 Identifying Business Opportunities

10.4 Understand Your Industry

10.5 Forecasting Demand

10.6 Breakeven Analysis

10.7 Product Development

10.8 Protecting Your Idea

10.9 Cases and Problems

Chapter 11: Operations Management in Manufacturing and Service Industries

11.1 Operations Management in Manufacturing

11.2 Facility Layouts

11.3 Managing the Production Process in a Manufacturing Company

11.4 Graphical Tools: PERT and Gantt Charts

11.5 The Technology of Goods Production

11.6 Operations Management for Service Providers

11.7 Producing for Quality

11.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 12: The Role of Accounting in Business

12.1 The Role of Accounting

12.2 Understanding Financial Statements

12.3 Accrual Accounting

12.4 Financial Statement Analysis

12.5 The Profession: Ethics and Opportunities

12.6 Cases and Problems

Chapter 13: Managing Financial Resources

13.1 The Functions of Money

13.2 Financial Institutions

13.3 The Federal Reserve System

13.4 The Role of the Financial Manager

13.5 Understanding Securities Markets

13.6 Financing the Going Concern

13.7 Careers in Finance

13.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 14: Personal Finances

14.1 Financial Planning

14.2 Time Is Money

14.3 The Financial Planning Process

14.4 A House Is Not a Piggy Bank: A Few Lessons from the Subprime Crisis

14.5 Cases and Problems

Chapter 15: Managing Information and Technology

15.1 Data versus Information

15.2 Managing Data

15.3 Types of Information Systems

15.4 Computer Networks and Cloud Computing

15.5 Data Communications Networks

15.6 Security Issues in Electronic Communication

15.7 Careers in Information Management

15.8 Cases and Problems

Chapter 16: The Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business

16.1 Law and the Legal System

16.2 Criminal versus Civil Law

16.3 Negligence Torts

16.4 Product Liability

16.5 Some Principles of Public Law

16.6 Cases and Problems

   

View this Free Online Material at the source:
 
Exploring Business


Real Time Web Analytics