3.1 What is business?
Understanding the nature and purpose of business
Updated
We've made a change to subject content in the table below. This change affects first AS exams in 2024 and A-level exams in 2025. To find out what's changed, read our summary of changes. You can also visit our updated specification.
Content |
Additional information |
|---|---|
Why businesses exist |
Business objectives such as profit, growth, survival, cash flow, social and ethical objectives |
The relationship between mission and objectives |
|
Common business objectives |
|
Why businesses set objectives |
|
The measurement and importance of profit |
The measurement of profit should include:
|
Understanding different business forms
Updated
We've made some changes to the subject content in the table below. These changes affect first AS exams in 2024 and A-level exams in 2025. To find out what's changed, read our summary of changes. You can also visit our updated specification.
Content |
Additional information |
|---|---|
Reasons for choosing different forms of business and for changing business form |
Different forms of business include:
Issues with different forms of business include:
|
The role of shareholders and why they invest |
|
Influences on share price and the significance of share price changes |
|
The effects of ownership on mission, objectives, decisions and performance |
Understanding that businesses operate within an external environment
Content |
Additional information |
|---|---|
How the external environment can affect costs and demand |
Factors influencing costs and demand to include the effect of:
|
Download specification
Teaching from 2023
Teaching from 2015
