Encyclopedia General Business Terms

Encyclopedia General Business Terms (1296 Terms) Powered by www.drawpack.com; All rights reserved.
Management
A to Z Keyword Definition
Topic
General An absolute advantage exists when a nation or economic region is able to produce a good or service more efficiently (using the
A Business Terms
Absolute Advantage
same amount of resources) than a second nation or region.
General Accelerated Tariff

A Business Terms Elimination
An increased rate of reduction of import duties at a faster rate than what was originally planned or decided upon.
A record of a business transaction. When you buy something on credit, the company you are dealing with sets up an
General
A Business Terms
Account "account". This means it sets up a record of what you buy and what you pay. You will do the same thing with any customers to
whom you extend credit.
General
A Business Terms
Account payee only Words often written on crossed cheques, which direct the bank to pay the cheque only to the bank account of the payee.
General
A Business Terms
Accountant A qualified person who is skilled at managing and analysing business financial records.
General
A Business Terms
Accounting Exposure Changes in a corporation's financial statements as a result of changes in currency values. Also known as translation exposure.
General Is money you owe to suppliers and other business creditors as a result of purchases of stock and other expenses such as
A Business Terms
Accounts payable
overheads and taxes.
General A record of what is owed to you. All of the credit "accounts" - the record of what each customer owes you - taken together are
A Business Terms
Accounts receivable
your "accounts receivable".
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Standard business accounting, which assumes there will be Accounts payable (Bills to be paid as part of the normal course of
business) and/or sales on credit (Sales made on account; shipments against invoices to be paid later) , as opposed to Cash-
General Accrual-based Basis only. For example, most businesses have regular bills such as rent, utilities, and often inventory purchase which are not
A Business Terms accounting paid for at the exact moment of purchase, but are invoiced. Most businesses will also not be able to collect on all of their sales
immediately in cash, but must bill the purchaser or wait for payment on at least some percentage of their sales (the exact
percentage varies by industry).
Total accumulated depreciation reduces the formal accounting value (called book value) of assets. Each month’s accumulated
General Accumulated
A balance is the same as last month’s balance plus this month’s depreciation. Business Plan Pro shows accumulated
Business Terms depreciation depreciation in the Balance Sheet.
General Short-term assets minus accounts receivable and inventory, divided by short-term liabilities. This is a test of a company’s ability
A Business Terms
Acid test
to meet its immediate cash requirements. It is one of the more common business ratios used by financial analysts.
General
A Business Terms
Acquisition costs The incremental costs involved in obtaining a new customer.
General In an acquisition of assets, one firm acquires the assets of another company. None of the liabilities supporting those asset are
A Business Terms
Acquisition of Assets
transferred to the purchaser.
General
A Business Terms
Acquisition of Stock In an acquisition of stock, one firm buys the equity interest of another firm.
General
A Business Terms
Acquisition Premium In a merger or acquisition, the difference between the purchase price and the preacquisition value of the target firm.
In relation to the GST, acquisitions include the things you buy (goods, services and anything else) for your business. They also
General
A Business Terms
Acquisitions include many other transactions, such as obtaining advice or information, taking out a lease of business premises or hiring
business equipment.
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General Active Fund An investment approach that actively shifts funds either between asset classes (asset allocation) or between individual
A Business Terms Management securities (security selection).
General
A Business Terms
Active Income In the U.S. tax code, income from an active business as opposed to passive investment income.
General Activity Based An accounting method that allocates costs to specific products or services or activities such as production, delivery or
A Business Terms Costing (ABC) maintenance based on breakdowns of cost drivers.
General
A Business Terms
Actuary A mathematician whose work is mainly concerned with insurance and finance.
General According to value. Applied to customs duty, it means a percentage charge on the value, rather than the weight or quantity of
A Business Terms
Ad valorem
goods.
General
A Business Terms
Ad Valorem Tariff A tariff assessed as a percentage of the value of an import.
General An organization that is able to respond to and address changes in their market, their environment, and/or their industry to
A Business Terms
Adaptive firm
better position themselves for survival and profitability.
General Adjusted Present

A Business Terms Value
A valuation method that separately identifies the value of an unlevered project from the value of financing side effects.
General Trading method in which the buyer pays for the goods before they are sent out , method is used when buyer is of unknown
A Business Terms
Advance Payment
credit worthiness.
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General It is also called "marine adventure." It is a term of art in the marine insurance business. All insured cargo owners and every
A Business Terms
Adventure
shipper on that vessel are part of the adventure.
General Capital needed in the earliest stages of the venture’s creation before the product or service is available to be provided. (As
A Business Terms
Adventure capital
mentioned in Entrepreneurship for the ’90’s by Baty.)
A product or service may generate additional revenue through advertising if there is benefit from creating additional awareness,
General Advertising
A Business Terms opportunity
communicating differentiating attributes, hidden qualities or benefits. Optimizing the opportunity may involve leveraging strong
emotional buying motives and potential benefits.
General
A Business Terms
Advising Bank Bank, usually in the country of the seller, whose primary function is to authenticate the letter of credit and advise it to the seller.
General Used to indicate that a shipper's agent or representative is not empowered to make definitive changes or adjustments without
A Business Terms
Advisory Capacity
approval of the group or individual represented.
General
A Business Terms
Affidavit a declaration in writing on oath, made before a person legally qualified for the purpose.
African
General The ABD Group is 1 of 4 major regional developmental banks currently operating in the global economy; it is headquartered in
A Business Terms
Developmental Bank
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
Group (ABD Group)
The African Union is an organization for regional, social and economic cooperation. It consists of 53 member nations in Africa
General
A Business Terms
African Union (AU) and was derived from the OAU (Organisation of African Unity). Its goal is to unify Africa and promote peace, security, and
stability on the continent through social and economic cooperation.
African, Caribbean, The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It
General
A Business Terms
and Pacific Countries is composed of African, Caribbean and Pacific States signatories to the Georgetown Agreement or the Partnership Agreement
(ACP) between the ACP and the European Union, officially called the
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General The costs incurred to ensure that agents and managers act in the best interest of the principal. For example, reward to
A Business Terms
Agency Costs
managers as a percentage of profit.
General
A Business Terms
Agent A business entity that negotiates, purchases, and/or sells, but does not take title to the goods.
General The total demand of all potential buyers of a commodity or service. Includes all individuals and organizations that have the
A Business Terms
Aggregate Demand
ability, willingness, and authority to purchase such products.
The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) and all restrictions thereunder terminated on January 1, 2005. The expiry of the
Agreement on
General ten-year transition period of ATC implementation means that trade in textile and clothing products is no longer subject to
A Business Terms
Textiles and Clothing
quotas under a special regime outside normal WTO/GATT rules but is now governed by the general rules and disciplines
(ATC) embodied in the multilateral trading system.
General
A Business Terms
Air Waybill A nonnegotiable instrument of domestic and international air transport that functions as a bill of lading.
General
A Business Terms
All-in-cost The percentage cost of a financing alternative, including any bank fees or placement fees.
General
A Business Terms
Allocational Efficiency The efficiency with which a market channels capital toward its most productive uses.
General Allocation-of-Income In the U.S. tax code, these rules define how income and deductions are to be allocated between domestic-source and foreign-
A Business Terms Rules source income.
General An amount paid or credited by sellers to the buyers on products due to one or more reasons that did not meet buyers'
A Business Terms
Allowance
specifications such as late shipment and faulty packaging.
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General A tariff that has two or more rates for the same product, trading to and from the same points, with the authority to use one that
A Business Terms
Alternative Tariff
produces the lowest charge.
General
A Business Terms
American Option An option that can be exercised anytime until expiration (contrast with European option).
General
A Business Terms
American Shares Shares of a foreign corporation issued directly to U.S. investors through a transfer agent in accordance with SEC regulations.
General
A Business Terms
American Terms A foreign exchange quotation that states the U.S. dollar price per foreign currency unit (contrast with European terms).
General
A Business Terms
Amortise the gradual process of writing off the cost of an asset, or paying off a liability by means of a sinking fund, over a period of time.
The Andean Community or Comunidad Andina de Naciones in Spanish (CAN) is made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
General Andean Community
A Business Terms (CAN)
and Venezuela. It is a series of bodies and institutions that work to bring Andean subregional integration, promote external
projection, and reinforce the actions connected with the process.
General
A Business Terms
Andean Pact A regional trade pact that includes Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.
General A level stream of equal dollar payments that lasts for a fixed time. An example of an annuity is the coupon part of a bond with
A Business Terms
Annuity
level annual payments.
General
A Business Terms
Annuity Factor The term used to calculate the present value of the stream of level payments for a fixed period.
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General Laws that are enacted to prevent dumping - offering prices in the overseas market that is lower than that at which a product is
A Business Terms
Anti-dumping Laws
sold in its home domestic market.
The Appellate Body is a World Trade Organization (WTO) entity, which was established in 1995 under Article 7 of the
Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). Its purpose is to hear appeals and
General
A Business Terms
Appellate Body (AB) reports issued by panels in disputes between WTO members. It is composed of a standing body of 7 people and has the
power to uphold, modify, or reverse the legal findings and conclusions of a panel. These rulings must be accepted by the
parties of the dispute. The Appellate Body has its seat in Geneva, Switzerland.
General
A Business Terms
Appreciation An increase in a currency value relative to another currency in a floating exchange rate system.
General Arab Maghreb Union A regional alliance seeking economic and political unity in Northern Africa. Members are Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco,
A Business Terms (AMU) and Tunisia.
General The process of purchasing and selling the identical products, such as foreign exchange, stocks, bonds and other commodities,
A Business Terms
Arbitrage
in several markets intending to make profit from the difference in price. Arbitrage is generally seen as a "risk-less" transaction.
General Arbitrage Pricing

A Business Terms Theory (APT)
APT is a theory used in finance to find the prices of assets and is typically used in stock pricing.
General The basic document of a registered company defining its internal organisation. It is one of two fundamental documents on
A Business Terms
articles of association
which the registration of a company is based. See memorandum of association.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral development financial institution owned by 67 members (48 from the
General Asian Development
A Business Terms Bank (ADB)
region and 19 from other parts of the globe). Its goal is to improve the welfare of the people in Asia and the Pacific. ADB is
headquartered in Manila, Philippines. It is one of four major development banks around the world.
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A forum designed to promote economic growth, cooperation, and integration among member nations. APEC has also worked
to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region. Its vision is based on the "Bogor Goals" adopted in the
Asia-Pacific
General 1994 meeting in Bogor, Indonesia. There are 21 member economies including: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile;
A Business Terms
Economic
People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua
Cooperation (APEC) New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of the Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United
States of America; Viet Nam.
General
A Business Terms
Ask Rates The rate at which a market maker is willing to sell the quoted asset. Also known as offer rates.
Anything of worth that is owned. The assets of a business are money in the bank, accounts receivable, securities held in the
General
A Business Terms
Asset name of the business, property or buildings, equipment, fixtures, merchandise for sale or being made, supplies and all things
of value that the business owns.
General Asset Allocation

A Business Terms Policy
The target weights given to various asset classes in an investment portfolio.
General Sales divided by total assets. Important for comparison over time and to other companies of the same industry. This is a
A Business Terms
Asset turnover
standard business ratio.
Property that a business owns, including cash and receivables, inventory, etc. Assets are any possessions that have value in
an exchange. The more formal definition is the entire property of a person, association, corporation, or estate applicable or
subject to the payment of debts. What most people understand as business assets are cash and investments, accounts
receivable, inventory, office equipment, plant and equipment, etc. Assets can be long-term or short-term, and the distinction
General
A Business Terms
Assets between these two categories might be whether they last three years, five years, 10 years, or whatever; normally the
accountants decide for each company and what’s important is consistency. The government also has a say in defining assets,
because it has to do with tax treatment; when you buy a piece of equipment, if you call that purchase an expense then you can
deduct it from taxable income. If you call it an asset you can’t deduct it, but you can list it on your financial statement among
the assets. The tax code controls how businesses decide to categorize spendings into assets or expenses.
General
A Business Terms
Assets In Place Those assets in which the firm has already invested (Compare to growth options).
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Association of
General An economic and geopolitical affiliation formed in 1967 that includes Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Thailand, the
A Business Terms
Southeast Asian
Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Nations (ASEAN)
General Legal seizure of a property or a person before the judgment is made, in order to secure compensation if awarded. The
A Business Terms
Attachment
prosecutor can request the court to issue an order to seize a property.
General
A Business Terms
At-the-money Option An option with an exercise price that is equal to the current value of the underlying asset.
General detailed checking of the financial records of a business by an independent qualified person (auditor) in order to verify their
A Business Terms
Audit
correctness or to detect errors or fraud.
General Australian Business An identifier for dealings with the Australian Taxation Office and for future dealings with other government departments and
A Business Terms Number (ABN) agencies.
General
A Business Terms
Autarky In models of international trade, a situation in which there is no cross-border trade.
General The total amount of capital which a company, by its memorandum of association, is authorised to offer for subscription. See
A Business Terms
Authorised capital
also, paid up capital.
General A guarantee of the buyer's credit provided by the guarantor, unless the buyer is of unquestioned financial standing. The aval is
A Business Terms
Aval
an endorsement note as opposed to a guarantee agreement.
General
A Business Terms
Avalisation Payment undertaking given by a bank in respect of a bill of exchange drawn.
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General Average Accounting

A Business Terms Return (AAR)
The average project earnings after taxes and depreciation divided by the average book value of the investment during its life.
General
A Business Terms
Award An agreement having the force of law, which sets out working conditions and wages for certain types of employment.
Front end and back end describe program interfaces relative to the user. The front end, here, is the appearance of your
website. It is the graphic design and HTML portion — some people call this the user interface or UI. In contrast, the portion of
General
B Business Terms
back end (websites) the application you or your developers work with is the back-end. The back end handles the dynamic parts of the site, such as
a newsletter, an administration page, a registration database, a contact page or more complicated Web applications. Your
back end interfaces with your UI and makes your website work.
General A customer order for materials, goods in process, or finished goods that is not currently in stock but is to be sold or delivered
B Business Terms
Back Order
when it becomes available.
General
B Business Terms
Backward Innovation Building a more basic version of an existing product for a lesser-developed market.
General
B Business Terms
Bad debts Money owed to you that you can't collect
General The amount of money remaining in an account. The total of your money in the bank after accounting for all transactions
B Business Terms
Balance
(deposits and withdrawals) is called a "balance".
General The International Monetary Fund’s accounting system that tracks the flow of goods, services, and capital in and out of each
B Business Terms
Balance of Payments
country.
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General
B Balance of Trade The difference between a country’s total imports and exports over a set period.
Business Terms
An important business document that shows what a business owns and owes as of the date shown. Essentially a "balance
General
B Business Terms
Balance sheet sheet" is a list of business assets and their cost on one side and a list of liabilities and owners' equity (investment in the
business) on the other side with the amount for each. The liabilities include all that the business owes.
General
B Business Terms
Balanced Economy In national finances, it is when exports are equal to imports.
General A written instruction to a bank’s agent to pay a sum of money to the person specified on the draft. A safe and convenient way
B Business Terms
Bank draft
of remitting money overseas.
General Bank for International An international organization, which promotes international monetary and financial cooperation among nations by fostering the
B Business Terms Settlements ((BIS)) cooperation of world central banks.
General A comparison between the bank’s record of transactions and the record of the firm’s cash book. After taking into account such
B Business Terms
Bank reconciliation
items as unpresented cheques and bank charges etc., the two records should show an identical balance.
General
B Business Terms
Bank Release A document issued by a bank authorizing the delivery of goods.
Bank-based
General
B Business Terms
Corporate A system of corporate governance in which the supervisory board is dominated by bankers and other corporate insiders.
Governance System
General
B Business Terms
Banker's Acceptance A time draft drawn on and accepted by a commercial bank.
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General
B Business Terms
Banker's Draft A payment instrument used to make international payments.
General A debtor, who has volunteered or been forced to appear before a Bankruptcy Court and has been judged insolvent, because
B Business Terms
Bankrupt
s/he has insufficient assets to meet the demands of all creditors.
General Bargain Purchase A lease provision allowing the lessee, to purchase the equipment for a price predetermined at lease inception, which is
B Business Terms Option substantially lower than the expected fair market value at the date the option can be exercised.
General
B Business Terms
Barter Trade in which merchandise is exchanged directly for others without use of money or the involvement of a 3rd party.
General An international treaty concerned with restricting the movement of hazardous wastes between countries, especially from
B Business Terms
Basel Convention
developed to underdeveloped countries.
General Accept the project if the (Internal Rate of Return) IRR is greater than the discount rate; reject the project if IRR is less than the
B Business Terms
Basic IRR Rule
discount rate.
General
B Business Terms
Basis The simple difference between 2 nominal interest rates.
General
B Business Terms
Basis Point Equal to 1/100 of 1 percent.
General
B Business Terms
Basis Risk The risk of unexpected change in the relationship between futures and spot prices.
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General A floating-for-floating interest rate swap that pairs two floating rate instruments at different maturities (such as 6-month LIBOR
B Business Terms
Basis Swap
versus 30-day U.S. T-bills).
General Bonds that can be redeemed by the holder. The convention in most West European countries is to issue bonds in registered
B Business Terms
Bearer Bonds
form (contrast with registered bonds).
General A systematic procedure of comparing a company’s practices against the best practice and modifying actual knowledge to
B Business Terms
Benchmarking
achieve superior performance.
General
B Business Terms
Beneficiary A party who receives a legal benefit.
A measure of an asset’s sensitivity to changes in the market portfolio (in the Capital Asset Pricing Model) or to a factor (in the
General
B Business Terms
Beta APT). The beta of an asset j is computed as bj = rj,k (sj/sk), where k represents a market factor (such as returns to the market
portfolio in the CAPM).
General
B Business Terms
Bid Bond A type of bond which guarantees the fulfillment of an offer or bid if it is accepted.
General
B Business Terms
Bid Rate The rate at which a market maker is willing to buy the quoted asset.
General
B Business Terms
Bid-offer Spread The difference between the interest rate at which the bank borrows money and lends money.
General Bilateral Investment A treaty between two countries to ensure that investments between the two countries receive the same treatment as domestic
B Business Terms Treaty (BIT) or other international investments.
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General Bilateral Trade A commercial agreement between two countries, often detailing what specific quantities of what specific goods can be
B Business Terms Agreement exchanged.
General A document that establishes the terms and conditions of a contract between a shipper and a shipping company under which
B Business Terms
Bill of Lading (BOL)
freight is to be moved between specified points for a specified charge.
General A document under seal, which formally transfers ownership of property specified in the document from the borrower to the
B Business Terms
Bill of sale
lender, until such time as the debt has been paid in full.
General
B Business Terms
Blank Endorsement The method whereby a bill of lading is made into a freely negotiable document of title.
General
B Business Terms
Blanket Bond A bond that coves a group of people, articles or properties.
General A long-term contract in which the supplier promises to re-supply the buyers as needed at agreed-upon prices over the
B Business Terms
Blanket Contracts
contracting time.
General
B Business Terms
Blanket Rate A rate that is applied broadly over different articles or entities.
General
B Business Terms
Blockade The act of seizing commercial exchange with a particular country. Such act is common during wartime.
General Cash flows generated by a foreign project that cannot be immediately repatriated to the parent firm because of capital flow
B Business Terms
Blocked Funds
restrictions imposed by the host government.
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The Bogor Goals were created by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Bogor, Indonesia in 1994, with the
General
B Business Terms
Bogor Goals intention of increasing economic unity among Asian Pacific nations by increasing trade. The goals are to have free trade and
investment in developed nations by 2010 and in developing nations by 2020.
General
B Business Terms
Bona fide In good faith, honestly, without fraud, collusion or participation in wrong doing.
General Payment by a tenant to a landlord before the tenant takes over the premises and from which the landlord may be able to
B Business Terms
Bond
deduct arrears of rent or the cost of rectifying damage.
General Bond Equivalent

B Business Terms Yield
A bond quotation convention based on a 365-day year and semiannual coupons (contrast with effective annual yield).
General An agreement relieving the party to whom the bond is issued of responsibility in a situation in which the party would normally be
B Business Terms
Bond of Indemnity
liable.
General
B Business Terms
Bonded Exchange Foreign exchange that cannot be freely converted into other currencies.
General
B Business Terms
Bookkeeping The process of recording business transactions in the accounting records
General A name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of all used to uniquely identify a producer’s goods and services and
B Business Terms
Brand
differentiate them from competitors.
General
B Business Terms
Brand equity The added value a brand name identity brings to a product or service beyond the functional benefits provided.
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General Brand extension

B Business Terms strategy
The practice of using a current brand name to enter a new or different product class.
General
B Brand recognition Positions customer’s relative perceptions of one brand to other competitive alternatives.
Business Terms
General Analysis of the level of sales at which a project would make zero profit. The term can also be used for sales of financial
B Business Terms
Break-even Analysis
instruments.
General
B Business Terms
Break-even point The point at which volume of sales is enough to cover all costs.
General Bretton Woods An agreement made near the end of World War II to promote exchange rate stability and facilitate the international flow of
B Business Terms Agreement currencies.
General Bretton Woods An international conference held in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference established the International
B Business Terms Conference Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
General A loan to provide short-term finance, usually to buy property or land, where the loan is to be cleared by longer-term borrowing,
B Business Terms
Bridging loan
or the sale of assets.
General
B Business Terms
Broker An intermediary that serves as a go-between for the buyer or seller.
General
B Business Terms
Budget An estimate of expenses and revenue required.
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General Goods set aside and reserved for sale specifically to balance out the market in the case of a shortage of that good. In the case
B Business Terms
Buffer Stock
of a surplus, more off the good would be bought and set aside.
General
B Business Terms
Bundling The practice of marketing two or more product or service items in a single package with one price.
Refers to personnel burden, the sum of employer costs over and above salaries (including employer taxes, benefits, etc.).
Business Plan Pro uses an assumed burden rate to calculate these extra personnel costs. The rate assumption is in the
General general assumptions table, as a percentage. Business Plan Pro applies this percentage to the straight wages and salaries. For
B Business Terms
Burden rate
example, if wages and salaries amount to $10,000 and the burden rate is 15%, then the personnel burden is $1,500, which is
15% of $10,000. The personnel burden is an operating expense, so it belongs with other expenses in the Profit and Loss table.
It is also a personnel cost, so it also shows in the Personnel Plan table.
General Business Activity A single form used to report business tax entitlements and obligations, including the amount of GST payable and your input tax
B Business Terms Statement credits.
General A brief description of an organization’s purpose with reference to its customers, products or services, markets, philosophy, and
B Business Terms
Business mission
technology.
General
B Business Terms
Business name The name of a business officially listed in the state or territory Register of Business Names.
The written document that details a proposed or existing venture. It seeks to capture the vision, current status, expected
General
B Business plan needs, defined markets, and projected results of the business. A business plan “tells the entrepreneur’s story” by describing
Business Terms the purpose, basis, reason and future of the venture.
General An agreement designed to address situations in which one or more of the entrepreneurs wants to sell their interest in the
B Business Terms
Buy-sell agreement
venture.
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General The undesirable tradeoff where sales of a new product or service decrease sales from existing products or services and
C Business Terms
Cannibalization
minimize or detract from the total revenue contribution of the organization.
General In banking and finance, when the interest on borrowed funds is tied to the market rate, an upper limit or a cap can be
C Business Terms
Cap
negotiated and agreed upon, so that even when the market rate is higher than the stated level, no premium will be paid.
General
C Business Terms
Capital The total owned and borrowed funds in a business.
General
C Business Terms
Capital Account A measure of change in cross-border ownership of long-term financial assets, including financial securities and real estate.
General Capital Asset Pricing

C Business Terms Model (CAPM)
An asset pricing model that relates the required return on an asset to its systematic risk.
Long-term assets, also known as Plant and Equipment, or fixed assets. These terms are interchangeable. Assets are generally
divided into short-term and long-term assets, the distinction depending on how long they last. Usually the difference between
short term and long term is a matter of accounting and financial policy. Five years is probably the most frequent division point,
meaning that assets that depreciate over more than five years are long-term assets. Ten years and three years are also
common. Business Plan Pro sets a starting value for capital assets in either the Start-up or the Past Performance table,
General
C Business Terms
Capital assets depending of course on the nature of the company, whether it is start-up or ongoing. In the start-up table, the capital assets are
called “.” In the Past Performance table, they are labeled “Capital Assets.” As the plan unfolds into months and year,
depreciation decreases the net value of capital assets, and capital expenditure increases total assets. Depreciation appears in
the Profit and Loss table, because it is an expense. Capital expenditure appears in the Cash Flow table, because it isn’t an
expense. Amounts typed into the Capital Expenditure row of the cash flow will increase the Capital Assets total in the Balance
Sheet Table.
General
C Business Terms
Capital Budgeting Planning and managing expenditures for long-lived assets.
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Spending on capital assets (also called plant and equipment, or fixed assets, or long-term assets). Business Plan Pro tracks
General capital expenditure in the Cash Flow table, because purchasing or selling assets affects cash flow, and the Balance Sheet
C Business Terms
Capital expenditure
table, but doesn’t affect profit or loss. A positive amount typed into the Capital Expenditure row in the Cash Flow table will
result in an increase in Capital Assetes in the Balance Sheet, and a negative amount will result in a decrease in Capital Assets.
General
C Business Terms
Capital Formation The process of increasing the amount of capital goods - also called capital stock - in a country.
General
C Business Terms
Capital Gain The positive change in the value of an asset, a negative capital gain is a capital loss.
General
C Business Terms
Capital Goods Manufactured goods that are used for production, such as machine tools.
This could also be called investment, or new investment. It is new money being invested in the business, not as loans or
repayment of loans, but as money invested in ownership. This is also money at risk. It will grow in value if the business
prospers, and decline in value if the business declines. This is closely related to the concept of paid-in capital, on the Balance
Sheet table. Paid-in capital is the amount of money actually invested in the business as money, checks written by investors.
General Paid-in capital increases only when there is new investment. It is different from retained earnings. Business Plan Pro sets the
C Business Terms
Capital input
initial amount of Paid-in Capital as an input into either the Start-up table (for start-up companies) or the Past Performance table
(for ongoing companies.) After either of those initial entries, only New Investment Received (called “capital input” in earlier
versions), in the Cash Flow table, increases Paid-in Capital. An entry as New Investment Received will increase your cash, and
will also increase the total amount of paid-in capital. The amounts planned should be typed into the New Investment Received
row of the Cash Flow table, and they will automatically increase Paid-in Capital in the Balance Sheet table.
General The line between the risk-free asset and the market portfolio that represents the mean-variance efficient set of investment
C Business Terms
Capital Market Line
opportunities in the CAPM.
General Markets for financial assets and liabilities with maturity greater than one year, i.e. long-term loanable funds, including long-term
C Business Terms
Capital Markets
government and corporate bonds, preferred stock, and common stock.
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General
C Business Terms
Capital Rationing The case where funds are limited to a fixed dollar amount and must be allocated among the competing projects.
General A list of expenses that must be met to establish a business. Even before a business is started, the owner should start keeping
C Business Terms
Capital requirement
records.
General The proportion of debt and equity and the particular forms of debt and equity chosen to finance the assets of the firm. Also
C Business Terms
Capital Structure
known as financial structure.
General An economic system that is based on private ownership; economic development is proportionate to and dependent upon the
C Business Terms
Capitalism
accumulation and reinvestment of profits.
Caribbean CARICOM consists of Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica,
General Community and Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago. Its purpose is to
C Business Terms Common Market provide a continued economic linkage after the dissolution of the West Indies Federation for English-speaking countries in the
(CARICOM) Caribbean.
General
C Business Terms
Carrier An individual or entity that transports persons or goods for compensation under the contract of carriage.
General
C Business Terms
Cartage The delivery of goods with short distance.
General An agreement among, or an organization of, suppliers of a product to limit production in order to minimize competition and
C Business Terms
Cartel
maximize market power.
Cash normally means bills and coins, as in paying in cash. However, the term is used in a business plan to represent the bank
General balance, or checking account balance. Business Plan Pro builds its financial analysis around cash and cash flow used in this
C Business Terms
Cash
second sense, as the balance of the checking account in the bank, plus other liquid securities used to bolster the checking
account.
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General Cash Against Payment for goods where a commission house or other intermediary transfers title documents to the buyer upon payment in
C Business Terms Documents (CAD) cash.
An accounting system that doesnt use the standard accrual accounting. It records only cash receipts and cash spending,
General
C Business Terms
Cash basis without assuming sales on credit (Sales made on account; shipments against invoices to be paid later) or Accounts payable
(Bills to be paid as part of the normal course of business).
General
C Business Terms
Cash book A record of cash payments and receipts, showing these under various categories.
General
C Business Terms
Cash Cover In a letter of credit transaction, money deposited by the applicant with the issuing bank.
General
C Business Terms
Cash discount A deduction that is given for prompt payment of a bill.
General Cash generated by the firm and paid to creditors and shareholders. It can be classified as (1) cash flow from operations, (2)
C Business Terms
Cash Flow
cash flow from changes in fixed assets, and (3) cash flow from changes in net working capital.
A budget that provides an overview of cash inflows and outflows during a specified period of time. This is often called the cash
General
C Business Terms
Cash flow budget flow, or the cash budget. Just as cash flow is one of the most critical elements of business, the cash flow projection or table is
one of the most critical elements of a business plan.
One of the three main financial statements (along with Income Statement and Balance Sheet), the Cash Flow shows actual
General
C Business Terms
Cash flow statement cash inflows and outflows of the business over a specified period of time. The Cash Flow Statement reconciles the Income
Statement (Profit and Loss) with the Balance Sheet.
General Cash in Advance Payment for goods in which the price is paid in full before the shipment is made. This type of payment is usually only made for
C Business Terms (CIA) very small shipments or when goods are made to order.
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General
C Business Terms
Cash receipts The money received by a business from customers
General Sales made in cash, or with credit cards, or by check. The opposite of sales on credit (Sales made on account; shipments
C Business Terms
Cash sales
against invoices to be paid later).
General
C Business Terms
Cash spending Money a business spends when it pays obligations immediately instead of letting them wait for a few days first.
General Cash With Order

C Business Terms (CWO)
Payment for goods in which the price is paid at the time the order is placed.
General
C Caveat emptor Let the buyer beware. The condition of sale is that the purchase is at the buyer’s risk.
Business Terms
Central America Free

General CAFTA-DR is an extensive trade agreement between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
C Business Terms
Trade Agreement
Honduras, Nicaragua, and the United States.
(CAFTA-DR)
General The sole institution of a nation that has the authority to issue banknotes and set monetary and credit policies. It manages the
C Business Terms
Central Bank
rate of exchange of the nation's currency and determines the internal and external monetary stability of the currency.
An entrepreneurial based model that considers the positives and negatives of three areas of the venture; founder(s),
General Central driving forces opportunities, and resources. The model then evaluates these areas regarding the “fits and gaps” that indicate correlating
C Business Terms model strengths or weaknesses for the venture. The CDF model also considers industry and market information in the overall
analysis.
General Centrally Planned

C Business Terms Economy
An economy in which the government, rather than free-market activity, controls the allocation of resources.
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General Certificate of Term used in leasing. A document whereby the lessee acknowledges that the equipment to be leased has been delivered, is
C Business Terms Acceptance acceptable, and has been manufactured or constructed according to specifications.
Certificate of
General Documents that may be asked for by the importer and/or the authorities of the importing country, as evidence of quality or
C Business Terms
Analysis/Certificate of
conformity to specifications.
Inspection
General Certificate of A statement that is usually notarized in which the producer of goods certifies that the goods have been produced and are now
C Business Terms Manufacture available to the buyer.
General Documents that may be asked for by the authorities of the importing country, as evidence of the country of manufacture of the
C Business Terms
Certificate of Origin
goods.
General Certificate of Product

C Business Terms Origin
A document required by certain foreign countries for tariff purpose, certifying the country of origin of specified goods.
General Change in Net

C Business Terms Working Capital
Difference between net working capital from one period to another.
General A situation where one or more channel members believe another channel member is engaged in behavior that is preventing it
C Business Terms
Channel conflicts
from achieving its goals. Channel conflict most often relates to pricing issues.
General Channels of
C The system where customers are provided access to an organization’s products or services.
Business Terms distribution
General
C Business Terms
Characteristic Line The line relating the expected return on a security to different returns on the market.
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General
C Business Terms
Chattel An item of movable personal property
General
C Business Terms
Chill a Sale The collusion of buyers or bidders in a sale to check competition in order to obtain goods or properties below fair value.
General
C Business Terms
Civil Law A body of law created by the legislation of a state or nation, and based upon written statutes, for its own regulation.
Civil Society
General
C Business Terms
Organizations Non-governmental and non-profit groups that work to improve society and the human condition.
(CSOs)
General A receipt for goods issued by a carrier that indicates that the goods were received in apparently good order and without
C Business Terms
Clean Bill of Lading
damage.
General
C Business Terms
Clean Collection Collection in which only the financial document is sent through the banks.
General
C Business Terms
Clearance The completion of customs entry requirements that results in the release of goods to the importer.
General
C Business Terms
Clearing The settlement of a transaction, often involving exchange of payments and/or documentation.
Clearing House
General
C Business Terms
Interbank Payments Financial network through which banks in the United States conduct their financial transactions.
System (CHIPS )
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A way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who
General clicked on an ad on a Web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad
C Business Terms
Click-through rate
was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and 1 person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be
1%.
General A mutual fund in which the amount of funds under management is fixed and ownership in the funds is bought and sold in the
C Business Terms
Closed-end Fund
market like a depository receipt.
General Closed-end
C Business Terms Transaction
A credit transaction in which the time for repayment and amount are fixed.
General
C Co-branding The pairing of two manufacture’s brand names on a single product or service.
Business Terms
General
C Business Terms
Codex Codex Alimentarius Commission (a world food standards body)
General
C Business Terms
Collar An agreement that fixes the interest rate between a lower and upper boundary, regardless of the market rate.
General
C Business Terms
Collateral security provided by a borrower to cover the possibility that the loan will not be repaid.
General The bank that acts as the agent of the seller to collect payment(s) from the buyer and then transfer the payment(s) to the
C Business Terms
Collecting Bank
remitting bank (seller's bank).
Collection days is supposed to represent the average number of days business waits, on average, between delivering an
General
C Business Terms
Collection days invoice and receiving payment. The formula for calculating collection days is:
=(Accounts_receivable_balance*360)/(Sales_on_credit*12) See Collection period, below.
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General
C Business Terms
Collection Order In a collection, the document in which the seller instructs the banks as to how the collection is to be conducted.
General Collection period The average number of days that pass between delivering an invoice and receiving the money. The formula is:
C Business Terms (days) =(Accounts_receivable_balance*360)/(Sales_on_credit*12)
General A trademark or service mark for a cooperative, association or a collective group to indicate membership in this collective
C Business Terms
Collective Mark
group.
General
C Business Terms
Collectivist Society A society in which people feel more comfortable thinking and acting in groups.
General An agreement (usually secret ) among mostly oligopolistic competing firms in an industry to control the market, raise the
C Business Terms
Collusion
market price, and otherwise act like a monopoly.
General An economy based on government ownership and/or control of society's resources; during the 20th century, the dominant form
C Business Terms
Command Economy
of command economy was communism.
General A bank whose primary function is to accept demand deposits (which can be withdrawn upon depositories' demand), and grant
C Business Terms
Commercial Bank
short-term and long-term loans.
General A letter of credit that assures the seller that buyer will pay for the goods being sold. Such letter is usually issued by a bank upon
C Business Terms
Commercial Credit
client's request.
General Commercial General term for documents describing various aspects of a transaction, e.g. commercial invoice, transport document,
C Business Terms Document insurance document, certificate of origin, certificate of inspection, etc.
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General Method of packing a shipment in which various goods subject to differing duties are grouped together. Because of this, the
C Business Terms
Commingling
value of each type of item is difficult to determine.
In business, a commission is the compensation paid to the person or entity based on the sale of a product; commonly
General calculated on a percentage basis. The most frequent commission formula is gross margin multiplied by the commissions
C Business Terms
Commission
percentage. To handle commissions with Business Plan Pro, use the spreadsheet programming capabilities to make one row
of operating expenses depend on sales, or gross margin.
General An assumed percentage used to calculate commissions expense as the product of commission percent multiplied by sales,
C Business Terms
Commission percent
gross margin, or related sales items.
General Commodity Price

C Business Terms Risk
The risk of unexpected changes in a commodity price, such as the price of oil.
General
C Business Terms
Commodity Swap A swap in which the (often notional) principal amount on at least one side of the swap is a commodity such as oil or gold.
General
C Business Terms
Common Carrier An organization that transports persons or goods for a fee.
General
C Business Terms
Common Law The body of law based on customs, usages, and court decisions rather than statutory laws.
General A common market is a group of countries that have common external tariffs against non-member nations. It may also allow
C Business Terms
Common Market
labor mobility as well as common economic policies. For example, the European Union (EU).
Common Market for An organization of states that intends to promote the development of the resources of its members, COMESA forms a major
General
C Business Terms
Eastern and Southern trading block of 20 nations: Angola, Burundi, Comoros, D.R. Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,
Africa (COMESA) Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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General An association of independent states that promotes cooperation, consultation, and mutual assistance among members.
C Business Terms
Commonwealth
However, such association has no treaty or constitution. For example, the British Commonwealth.
(U.K.): A CIC is a new type of limited company in the United Kingdom, designed for social enterprises that want to use their
profits and assets for the public good. CICs will be easy to set up, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but
General Community Interest with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community. This is achieved by a “community
C Business Terms Company (CIC) interest test” and “asset lock”, which ensure that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are
dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a
continuing monitoring and enforcement role.
General
C Business Terms
Company A business owned by a group of people called shareholders, which has its own legal identity separate from its owners.
A comparative advantage exists when a nation or economic region is able to produce a product at a lower opportunity cost
General Comparative
C Business Terms Advantage
compared to another nation or region. The rule of economics that states that each country should specialize in producing those
goods that it is able to produce relatively most efficiently.
General
C Business Terms
Compensatory Trade The sale of goods or services that is paid for by bartering other goods or services.
General Competitive The strategic development where customers will choose a firm’s product or service over its competitors based on significantly
C Business Terms advantage more favorable perceptions or offerings.
General Assessing and analyzing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of competitors; may include their current and potential
C Business Terms
Competitive analysis
product and service development and marketing strategies.
Strategic competitive advantages and justification for entering an established market or activity that provides recognizable and
General Competitive entry
C Business Terms wedges
known value. The four competitive entry wedges include: 1) New product or service 2) Parallel Competition 3) Franchise Entry
4) Twists
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General Complementary
C Business Terms Imports
The imports of goods or services that the importing country does not possess or produce.
General Completed store

C Business Terms transactions
A conversion value measuring the number of purchases made on the website.
General Compliant Documents presented under a letter of credit that comply with all its terms and conditions. The banks are only obliged to pay
C Business Terms Documents the beneficiary if documents are totally compliant.
General Interest that is earned both on the initial principal and on interest earned on the initial principal in previous periods. The interest
C Business Terms
Compound Interest
earned in one period becomes in effect part of the principal in a following period.
General
C Business Terms
Compound Rate A rate that has both a specific rate as well as an ad valorem rate.
General
C Business Terms
Compound Value Value of a sum after investing it over more than one period. Also called future value.
General Process of reinvesting each interest payment to earn more interest. Compounding is based on the idea that interest itself
C Business Terms
Compounding
becomes principal and therefore also earns interest in subsequent periods.
General Concentrated target

C Business Terms marketing
A process that occurs when a single target market segment is pursued.
General
C Business Terms
Confirming Bank Bank that adds its payment undertaking to a letter of credit.
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General
C Business Terms
Consignee Party to whom goods are to be delivered.
Delivery of merchandise from an exporter (the consignor) to an agent (the consignee) under agreement that the consignee
General
C Business Terms
Consignment sells the merchandise of the account of the consignor, while the consignor retains title to the goods until the consignee sells
them. The consignee sells merchandise for commissions and remits the net proceeds to the consignor.
General A consignor is an individual entity, partnership or a company that ships its goods to another party to be taken care of. A
C Business Terms
Consignor
consignor is usually an exporter.
General
C Consolidated Income The sum of income across all of the multinational corporation’s domestic and foreign subsidiaries.
Business Terms
A form of corporate reorganization in which two firms pool their assets and liabilities to form a new company. The term can
General
C Business Terms
Consolidation also be used for shipping, in which a freight consolidator combines shipments of cargo that are less than truckload (LTL) in
order to reduce shipping rates.
A document required by some foreign countries, describing a shipment of goods and showing information such as the
General
C Business Terms
Consular Statement consignor, consignee, and value of shipment. Certified by a consular official of the foreign country, it is used by the country's
officials to verify the value, quantity, and nature of the shipment.
General
C Business Terms
Consulate The diplomatic building located in a foreign country that represents the commercial interests of the home country.
General
C Business Terms
Consumer Goods Goods produced for individuals rather than for manufacturing purposes.
General Consumer price index A measure of the aggregate rise or fall in prices of commonly used goods and services, published by the Commonwealth
C Business Terms (CPI) Government as a basis, among other things, for deciding what overall increases should be made to wages and salaries.
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General The amount the buyer pays the seller to delay the transaction of a security, especially when the future price of the security is
C Business Terms
Contango
above the expected future spot price. The opposite is called backwardation.
Contingency insurance protects the exporter in any situation in which exporter responsibility relied on the buyer to insure, but
General Contingency
C Business Terms Insurance
sustained a loss because of inadequate coverage from that source. It will cover situations in which the FOB endorsement
would have otherwise served had that been in force.
General Claim whose value is directly dependent on, or is contingent on, the value of its underlying assets. For example, the debt and
C Business Terms
Contingent claim
equity securities issued by a firm derive their value from the total value of the firm.
General A liability which will only arise upon the happening of a certain event, for example, the guarantor of a loan being asked to
C Business Terms
Contingent liability
honour the guarantee if the borrower defaults.
General Continuous
C Business Terms Compounding
Interest compounded continuously, every instant, rather than at fixed intervals.
General Continuous Quotation A trading system in which buy and sell orders are matched with market makers as the orders arrive, ensuring liquidity in
C Business Terms System individual shares.
General
C Business Terms
Contract A legally binding agreement between two or more parties.
General Contract
C Business Terms Manufacturing
A firm allowing another firm to manufacture a pre-specified product.
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Contribution can have different meanings in different context. When contribution is applied to a product or product line, it
means the difference between total sales revenue and total variable costs, or, on a per-unit basis, the difference between unit
selling and the unit variable cost and may be expressed in percentage terms (contribution margin) or dollar terms (contribution
General
C Business Terms
Contribution margin per unit). Contribution is also frequently expressed as contribution margin for a whole company or across a group or product
line, in which case it can be taken as gross margin less sales and marketing expenses. For example, Marketing Plan Pro
produces a table named Contribution Margin that shows sales, cost of sales, gross margin, sales and marketing expenses,
and contribution margin. The contribution is gross margin less sales and marketing expenses.
General Controllable
C Business Terms expenses
Those expenses that can be controlled or restrained by the businessperson.
General Controlled Foreign

C Business Terms Corporation (CFC)
In the U.S. tax code, a foreign corporation owned more than 50 percent either in terms of market value or voting power.
Convention on the
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement
General International Trade in
C between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten
Business Terms Endangered Species their survival.
(CITES)
The percentage of unique website visitors who take a desired action upon visiting the website. The desired action may be
General
C Business Terms
Conversion rate submitting a sales lead, making a purchase, viewing a key page of the site, downloading a file, or some other measurable
action.
General Bonds sold with a conversion feature that allows the holder to convert the bond into common stock on or prior to a conversion
C Business Terms
Convertible Bonds
date and at a prespecified conversion price.
General
C Business Terms
Convertible Currency A currency that can be traded for other currencies at will.
General Convex Tax A tax schedule in which the effective tax rate is greater at high levels of taxable income than at low levels of taxable income.
C Business Terms Schedule Such a schedule results in progressive taxation.
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The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) was established on May 25, 1981. It joined the 6 states of the
Cooperation Council
General United Arab Emirates, State of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar and State of Kuwait. The
C Business Terms
for the Arab States of
framework's focus is on acheiving a state of unity in all fields among its member states. It also stresses a furthering of relations
the Gulf (GCC) and cooperation among member states and provides a platform to address security and economic development chanllenges.
General The rules and regulations that all applicant countries to the European Union must meet, and to which all EU member nations
C Business Terms
Copenhagen Criteria
must maintain.
A type of property right which protects the expression of ideas such as literary or dramatic works, television productions,
General
C Business Terms
Copyright drawings etc., from being used for commercial gain without permission of the copyright owner. Registration is not a
prerequisite for protection.
General Core marketing

C Business Terms strategy
A statement that communicates the predominant reason to buy to a specific target market.
General The set of values, beliefs, relationships between individuals and functions that guide the decisions of a company to achieve its
C Business Terms
Corporate Culture
objectives.
General Corporate
C Business Terms Governance
The way in which major stakeholders exert control over the modern corporation.
General Corporate Social The responsibilities that corporations (including MNCs) have to workers and their families, to consumers, to investors, and to
C Business Terms Responsibility (CSR) the natural environment.
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Corporations are either the standard C corporation or the small business S corporation. The C corporation is the classic legal
entity of the vast majority of successful companies in the United States. Most lawyers would agree that the C corporation is the
structure that provides the best shielding from personal liability for owners, and provides the best non-tax benefits to owers.
This is a separate legal entity, different from its owners, which pays its own taxes. Most lawyers would also probably agree that
for a company that has ambitions of raising major investment capital and eventually going public, the C corporation is the
standard form of legal entity. The S corporation is used for family companies and smaller ownership groups. The clearest
distinction from C is that the S corporation’s profits or losses go straight through to the S corporation’s owners, without being
General
C Business Terms
Corporation taxed separately first. In practical terms, this means that the owners of the corporation can take their profits home without first
paying the corporation’s separate tax on profits, so those profits are taxed once for the S owner, and twice for the C owner. In
practical terms the C corporation doesn’t send its profits home to its owners as much as the S corporation does, because it
usually has different goals and objectives. It often wants to grow and go public, or it already is public. In most states an S
corporation is owned by a limited number (25 is a common maximum) of private owners, and corporations can’t hold stock in S
corporations, just invidivuals. Corporations can switch from C to S and back again, but not often. The IRS has strict rules for
when and how those switches are made. You’ll almost always want to have your CPA and in some cases your attorney guide
you through the legal requirements for switching.
General A measure of the covariability of two assets that is scaled for the standard deviations of the assets (rAB = sAB / sAsB such that
C Business Terms
Correlation
-1 < rAB < +1).
General
C Business Terms
Correspondent Bank A bank that, in its own country, handles the business of a foreign bank.
General The principal where an entrepreneurial venture may find that it has significantly changed it’s focus from the initial concept of the
C Business Terms
Corridor Principal
venture as it has continually responded and adapted to it’s market and the desire to optimize profitability potential.
General
C Business Terms
Co-signers People whom together share responsibility on behalf of a business by jointly signing documents or cheques.
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General
C Business Terms
Cost and Freight A pricing term that indicates that the cost of the goods and freight charges are included in the quoted price.
General The required return on the company's common stock in capital markets. It is also called the equity holders' required rate of
C Business Terms
Cost of Equity Capital
return because it is what equity holders can expect to obtain in the capital market. It is a cost from the firm's perspective.
The cost of goods sold is traditionally the costs of materials and production of the goods a business sells. For a manufacturing
company this is materials, labor, and factory overhead. For a retail shop it would be what it pays to buy the goods that it sells to
General Cost of Goods Sold
C its customers. For service businesses, that don’t sell goods, the same concept is normally called “cost of sales,” which
Business Terms (COGS) shouldn’t be confused with “sales and marketing expenses.” The cost of sales in this case is directly analogous to cost of
goods sold. For a consulting company, for example, the cost of sales would be the compensation paid to the consultants plus
General
C Business Terms
Cottage Industry An industry comprised of a labor force that produces goods for sale at home, often with their own equipment.
General
C Business Terms
Counter Credit Another name for back-to-back letter of credit.
General
C Business Terms
Countertrade The sale of goods or services that are paid for in whole or part by the transfer of goods or services from a foreign country.
General Duties levied on an imported good that has been unfairly subsidized by a foreign government. Imposing duties on the good is
C Business Terms
Countervailing Duties
meant to raise the product's price to a "fair market value".
General
C Business Terms
Country Risk The political and financial risks of conducting business in a particular foreign country.
General
C Business Terms
Coupon The stated interest on a debt instrument.
Page 35 of 149
General
C Business Terms
Coupon Swap A fixed-for-floating interest rate swap.
General
C Business Terms
Courtage A European term for brokerage fee.
General
C Business Terms
Covariance A measure of the covariability of two assets (sAB = sAsB rAB).
General
C Business Terms
Cover Note Insurance document evidencing that insurance cover for a consignment has been taken out, but not giving full details.
General A temporary certificate of insurance issued by an insurance company to give immediate insurance cover until a formal
C Business Terms
Cover note
document is prepared and issued.
General
C Credit An entry made on the right hand side of an account and indicating a gain to a liability, owner’s equity or revenue account.
Business Terms
General A form to be completed by an applicant for a credit account, giving sufficient details to allow the seller to establish the
C Business Terms
Credit application
applicant’s creditworthiness.
General
C Business Terms
Credit control Any policy designed to increase or decrease credit.
General
C Business Terms
Credit limit The upper limit of credit that a business will allow a customer to have.
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General
C Business Terms
Credit Risk Insurance Insurance that covers the risk of nonpayment for delivered goods.
General
C Business Terms
Creditor A person or business to whom money is owed.
General Creeping
C Business Terms Nationalization
The succession of small but important changes in a firm's condition or standing that bring it slowly under national control.
General Cross elasticity of The change in the quantity demanded of one product or service impacting the change in demand for another product or
C Business Terms demand service.
General A cheque across which two parallel lines have been drawn. The effect of crossing a cheque is to direct your bank to pay the
C Business Terms
Crossed cheque
cheque only through another bank account.
General
C Business Terms
Cross-hedge A futures hedge using a currency that is different from, but closely related to, the currency of the underlying exposure.
General Collective mental paradigms that a society imparts to individuals in the form of behavior patterns, shared values, norms and
C Business Terms
Culture
institutions.
Cumulative
General
C Business Terms
Translation An equity account under FAS #52 that accumulates gains or losses caused by translation accounting adjustments.
Adjustment (CTA)
General Currency Coupon

C Business Terms Swap
A fixed-for-floating rate nonamortizing currency swap traded primarily through international commercial banks.
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General Currency Cross-

C Business Terms hedge
A hedge of currency risk using a currency that is correlated with the currency in which the underlying exposure is denominated.
General Currency of The currency that is being bought or sold. It is most convenient to place the currency of reference in the denominator of a
C Business Terms Reference foreign exchange quote.
General A contract giving the option holder the right to buy or sell an underlying currency at a specified price and on a specified date.
C Business Terms
Currency Option
The option writer (seller) holds the obligation to fulfill the other side of the contract.
General
C Business Terms
Currency Risk The risk of unexpected changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Also known as foreign exchange risk.
General A contractual agreement to exchange a principal amount of two different currencies and, after a prearranged length of time, to
C Business Terms
Currency Swap
give back the original principal. Interest payments in each currency are also typically swapped during the life of the agreement.
General
C Current Account A measure of a country’s international trade in goods and services.
Business Terms
General Current Account A broad measure of import-export activity that includes services, travel and tourism, transportation, investment income and
C Business Terms Balance interest, gifts, and grants along with the trade balance on goods.
General Includes cash, short-term deposits, customers’ accounts, stock (includes work in progress, raw materials and finished goods),
C Business Terms
Current assets
that will be converted into cash during the normal course of business, within a year.
General
C Business Terms
Current debt Short-term debt, short-term liabilities.
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General Short-term debts such as bank overdraft, creditors and provisions set aside to pay taxation and other commitments (for
C Business Terms
Current liabilities
example, holiday or long service leave) and expected to come due within one year of the Balance Sheet.
A translation accounting method, such as FAS #52 in the United States, that translates monetary and real assets and
General
C Current Rate Method monetary liabilities at current exchange rates. FSA #52 places any imbalance into an equity account called the “cumulative
Business Terms translation adjustment.”
General A person or firm obtains the license from the treasury department of its Country when required, and help clients (importers) to
C Business Terms
Customhouse Broker
enter and declare goods through customs.
General
C Business Terms
Customs The authorities designated to collect duties levied by a country on imports and exports.
General A form of regional economic integration group that eliminates tariffs among member nations and establishes common external
C Business Terms
Customs Union
tariffs.
General
D Business Terms
Dealing Desk The desk at an international bank that trades spot and forward foreign exchange. Also known as trading desk.
General A fixed interest investment in a company, which has priority for interest payments, generally redeemable after the lapse of a
D Business Terms
Debenture
specified time
General To debit is to place an entry on the left-hand side of an account. A debit in a liability account makes it smaller. A debit in an
D Business Terms
Debit
asset account makes it larger.
General That which is owed. If you borrow money, buy something on credit or receive more money on an account than is owed, you
D Business Terms
Debt
have a "debt.
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General
D Business Terms
Debt and equity The sum of liabilities and capital. This should always be equal to total assets.
General
D Business Terms
Debt Capacity The amount of debt that a firm chooses to borrow to support a project.
General
D Business Terms
Debt capital Money from external sources used to finance a business. See also equity capital.
General
D Business Terms
Debt-for-equity Swap A swap agreement to exchange equity (debt) returns for debt (equity) returns over a prearranged length of time.
General
D Business Terms
Debtor A person or business who owes money
General
D Business Terms
Debtor Nation A nation that is owed less in foreign currency than it owes other nations.
General
D Business Terms
Decision Trees A graphical analysis of sequential decisions and the likely outcomes of those decisions.
General
D Business Terms
Default To fail to meet an obligation when due, such as paying a debt.
General Deferred Payment

D Business Terms Credit
A type of letter of credit which provides for payment some time after presentation of the shipping documents by the exporter.
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General Situation created when a sales agent sells on credit and there is a chance that the buyer either does not want to or does not
D Business Terms
Del Credere Risk
have the money to pay.
General Deliverable The asset underlying a derivative security. For a currency option, the deliverable instrument is determined by the options
D Business Terms Instrument exchange and is either spot currency or an equivalent value in futures contracts.
General A futures hedge using a currency that matches the underlying exposure and a maturity date that is different from, but
D Business Terms
Delta-hedge
preferably close to, the maturity of the underlying exposure.
General An order to comply with an obligation. In business, paying on "demand" means that the obligation must be satisfied
D Business Terms
Demand
immediately when requested.
General Demand
D A business process with the intention to coordinate and influence all sources of demand for a firm’s products.
Business Terms Management
Department for
General
D Business Terms
International Department for International Development (UK)
Development (DFID)
General Department of
D Business Terms Commerce (DOC)
Department of Commerce (USA)
General A derivative security issued by a foreign borrower through a domestic trustee representing ownership in the deposit of foreign
D Business Terms
Depository Receipt
shares held by the trustee.
General 1) The expense against earnings to write-off purchase price of an asset over its useful life. 2) A decrease in a currency value
D Business Terms
Depreciation
relative to another currency in a floating exchange rate system.
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General Gradual reduction of the value of a fixed asset and gradual application of this cost to the expenses of a business over the
D Business Terms
Depreciation expense
useful life of the asset.
General Depreciation A table showing depreciable assets, the year each was purchased, its cost, the percentage by which it is depreciated each
D Business Terms schedule year and written down current value.
General A financial security whose price is derived from the price of another asset. The value of a derivative is determined by the
D Business Terms
Derivative Security
fluctuations in the asset.
General A decrease in a currency value relative to another currency in a fixed exchange rate system. The purpose of devaluation
D Business Terms
Devaluation
typically is to increase export and decrease import in order to correct a balance of payment deficit.
General
D Business Terms
Developed Countries The richer more industrialized countries in the world.
A country that is in the process of becoming industrialized. Average national income must be below $9,265 for a country to be
General
D Business Terms
Developing Country classified as a developing country. A developing country typically lacks industrialization, infrastructure, high literacy rate and
advanced living standards.
General
D Business Terms
Difference Check The difference in interest payments that is exchanged between two swap counterparties.
General Differentiated target A process that occurs when an organization simultaneously pursues several different market segments, usually with a different
D Business Terms marketing strategy for each.
General An approach to create a competitive advantage based on obtaining a significant value difference that customers will appreciate
D Business Terms
Differentiation
and be willing to pay for, and which ideally will increase their loyalty as a result.
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General
D Business Terms
Digital Divide The digital divide refers to the widening technological gap between the richer and the poorer countries of the world.
General A shortcut for cost of goods sold: traditionally, the costs of materials and production of the goods a business sells, or the costs
D Business Terms
Direct cost of sales
of fulfilling a service for a service business.
General the costs incurred, in addition to fixed costs, as a result of manufacturing a product or providing a service. Direct costs are
D Business Terms
Direct costs
made up of direct material, direct labour and direct manufacturing or servicing costs.
General Direct Costs of

D Business Terms Financial Distress
Costs of financial distress that are directly incurred during bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings.
General Marketer takes direct responsibility for its products abroad by selling them directly to foreign customers or through local
D Business Terms
Direct Exporting
representatives in foreign markets.
General Direct Financing A non-leveraged lease by a lessor in which the lease meets any of the definitional criteria of a capital lease, plus certain
D Business Terms Lease additional criteria.
General A form of direct marketing that involves sending information through a mail process, physical or electronic, to potential
D Business Terms
Direct mail marketing
customers.
Any method of distribution that gives the customer access to an organization’s products and services without intermediaries;
General
D Business Terms
Direct marketing also, any communication from the producer that communicates with a target market to generate a revenue producing
response.
General Direct Product

D Business Terms Profitability
Measuring the direct costs associated with handling a product from the warehouse until a customer buys from the retail store.
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General The price of a unit of foreign currency in domestic currency terms, such as $.6548/DM for a U.S. resident (contrast with indirect
D Business Terms
Direct Terms
quote).
General a personal guarantee given by a director of a company that s/he will be personally responsible for a debt or other liability of the
D Director’s guarantee
Business Terms company. Usually requested in credit applications, leases, loans and hire purchase agreements.
General A computer term related to the operating system on IBM and compatible computers. Disk storage space is divided into
D Business Terms
Directory
directories.
General
D Business Terms
Disbursements Funds paid out of a business in settlement of obligations.
General
D Business Terms
Discount If a bond is selling below its face value, it is said to sell at a discount.
General Discounted Cash A valuation methodology that discounts expected future cash flows at a discount rate appropriate for the risk, currency, and
D Business Terms Flow maturity of the cash flows.
General The length of time needed to recoup the present value of an investment; sometimes used when investing in locations with high
D Business Terms
Discounted Payback
country risk.
General Discounted Payback An investment decision rule in which the cash flows are discounted at an interest rate and the payback rule is applied on these
D Business Terms Period Rule discounted cash flows.
General
D Business Terms
Discounting Calculating the present value of a future amount. The process is the opposite of compounding.
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General Discretionary
D Business Terms Reserves
Balance sheet accounts that are used in some countries to temporarily store earnings from the current year or the recent past.
General
D Business Terms
Discriminatory Pricing The practice that selling a product or service at different prices that do not reflect a proportional difference in costs.
General
D Dishonoured The word used to describe a cheque, which the bank will not pay, because the customer’s account lacks sufficient funds.
Business Terms
General An amount paid by a vessel's operator to a charter if loading or unloading is completed in less time than stipulated in the
D Business Terms
Dispatch
charter party.
General Dispute Settlement

D Business Terms Body (DSB)
Dispute Settlement Body is a part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that settles trade disputes between governments.
General Dispute Settlement The Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was one of the key outcomes of the
D Business Terms Understanding (DSU) Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
General Distinctive An organization’s strengths or qualities including skills, technologies, or resources that distinguish it from competitors to
D Business Terms competency provide superior and unique customer value and, hopefully, is difficult to imitate.
General
D Distributor A foreign agent who sells for a supplier directly and maintains an inventory of the supplier’s product.
Business Terms
General
D Business Terms
Diversifiable Risk A risk that specifically affects a single asset or a small group of assets. Also called unique or unsystematic risk.
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General A product-market strategy that involves the development or acquisition of offerings new to the organization and/or the
D Business Terms
Diversification
introduction of those offerings to the target markets not previously served by the organization.
General Diversionary The sale of foreign products at less than fair value to a 3rd country where the products are further processed and sold to
D Business Terms Dumping another country.
General
D Business Terms
Dividends Money distributed to the owners of a business as profits.
General
D Business Terms
Dock Receipt A receipt issued by an ocean carrier to acknowledge receipt of a shipment at the carrier's dock or warehouse.
General
D Business Terms
Dock Statement A receipt issued by an ocean carrier to acknowledge the receipt of a shipment at the carrier's dock or warehouse facilities.
DBA stands for “Doing Business As,” which is a company name, also commonly called a “Fictitious business name.” When a
sole proprietor operates a company using any name except his or her own given name, then the DBA or ficticious business
General Doing Business As name registration establishes the legal ownership to satisfy banks, local authorities, and customers. So when you start the
D Business Terms (DBA) Acme Restaurant, unless you are named Acme, you need your DBA to open a bank account in that name, pay employees, and
do business. You can usually obtain this registration through the county government, and the cost is no more than a small
registration fee plus a required newspaper ad, for a total of less than $100 in most states.
General
D Business Terms
Domestic Bonds Bonds issued and traded within the internal market of a single country and denominated in the currency of that country.
Domestic
General In the U.S. tax code, a specialized sales corporation whose income is lumped into the same income basket as a foreign sales
D Business Terms
International Sales
corporation.
Corporation
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General
D Business Terms
Domestic Liquidity The aggregate of money supply, quasi-money or savings and time deposits, and deposit substitutes.
General Downstream A type of dumping in which the primary producer first sells its product to another domestic producer at below fair value or cost.
D Business Terms Dumping The second producer then furthur processes the product and exports it to another country at a lower than normal cost.
General A means of payment whereby a drawer (the importer) instructs a drawee (either the importer or its commercial bank) to pay the
D Business Terms
Draft
payee (the exporter). Also known as trade bill or bill of exchange.
General
D Business Terms
Drawer The person who writes a cheque in payment for goods or services.
General
D Business Terms
Drawings Withdrawals of assets (usually cash) from a business by a sole proprietor or a partner.
General The practice of simultaneously distributing products or services through two or more marketing channels that may or may not
D Business Terms
Dual distribution
compete for similar buyers.
General
D Business Terms
Dual Pricing The practice of selling identical products in different markets for different prices.
Selling merchandise in another country at a price below the price at which the same merchandise is sold in the home market
General
D Business Terms
Dumping or selling such merchandise below the costs incurred in production and shipment, that is, selling the product at less than fair
value. Dumping is an illegal trade practice.
General
D Business Terms
Dumping Margin The difference between the fair value of a product and the amount for which it is available in the case of dumping.
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General
D Business Terms
Duty A tax imposed on imports by the customs authority of a country.
General One type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework that describes buyers that follow “innovators” rather
E Business Terms
Early adopters
than be the first to purchase.
General One type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework that describes those interested in new technology
E Business Terms
Early majority
that wait to purchase until these innovations are proven to perform to the expected standard.
General
E Earnings Also called income or profits, earnings are the famous “bottom line”: sales less costs of sales and expenses.
Business Terms
Earnings Before
General
E Business Terms
Interest and Taxes Earnings before interest and taxes.
(EBIT)
Earnings Before Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization: equal to the Gross Margin (The difference between total sales
revenue and total direct cost of sales) minus Total Operating Expenses (Tax-deductible expenses incurred in conducting
Interest Taxes
General normal business operations, such as wages and salaries, rent, etc.) , plus any Depreciation (The loss of value of assets over
E Business Terms
Depreciation and
time) and amortization. This is similar to Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT). The difference between the two is that
Amortization EBIT subtracts all expenses, including depreciation, as an expense, and EBITDA subtracts all expenses except depreciation
(EBITDA) and amortization.
General Earnings Response

E Business Terms Coefficient
The relation of stock returns to earnings surprises around the time of corporate earnings announcements.
General
E Business Terms
Easement A right held by one party to make use of the land of another.
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The East African Community (EAC) is a regional organization composed of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda and the United
General East African Republic of Tanzania. The EAC provides a forum for cooperation on a broad range of topics including: trade, science and
E Business Terms Community (EAC) technology, wildlife management, investments and industrial development, and foreign affairs. The 3 East African countries
encompass a population of 82 million and covers an area of 1.8 million square kilometers.
General A theory of the multinational firm that posits three types of advantages benefiting the multinational corporation: ownership-
E Business Terms
Eclectic Paradigm
specific, location-specific, and market internalization advantages.
Economic Community
General A regional group consisting of fifteen West African nations. It is a free trade area for agricultural products and raw materials,
E Business Terms
of West African
and a preferential trade area for various industrial products.
States (ECOWAS)
General
E Economic Exposure Change in the value of a corporation’s assets or liabilities as a result of changes in currency values.
Business Terms
General
E Business Terms
Economic Freedom Economic freedom occurs when individuals and businesses make most of the economic decisions in an economy.
General
E Business Terms
Economic Integration The integration of commercial and financial activities among countries through the abolishment of economic discrimination.
General A group that combines the economic characteristics of a common market with some degree of harmonization of
E Business Terms
Economic Union
macroeconomic policies, such as monetary and fiscal policies.
General Economic Value A method of performance evaluation that adjusts accounting performance with a charge reflecting investors’ required return on
E Business Terms Added investment.
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General Achieving lower average cost per unit through a larger scale of production. This is achieved by spreading fixed cost over a
E Business Terms
Economies of Scale
greater amount of production.
General Economies of Vertical Achieving lower operating costs by bringing the entire production chain within the firm rather than contracting through the
E Business Terms Integration marketplace.
General Effective Annual

E Business Terms Interest Rate
The interest rate as if it were compounded once per time period rather than several times per period.
General Calculated as (1+i/n)n, where i is the stated annual interest rate and n is the number of compounding periods per year
E Business Terms
Effective Annual Yield
(contrast with bond equivalent yield and money market yield).
General
E Effective demand When prospective buyers have the willingness and ability to purchase an organization’s offerings.
Business Terms
General Effective Exchange Spot exchange rates that are actually paid or received by the general public, including taxes on any transactions as well as
E Business Terms Rate bank commissions.
General The effective tax rate is a comparison of final tax payments compared to actual profits. Usually the effective tax rate is
E Business Terms
Effective tax rate
somewhat less than the nominal tax rate because of deductions, credits, etc.
General
E Business Terms
Efficient Frontier The mean-variance efficient portion of the investment opportunity set.
General
E Business Terms
Efficient Market A market in which prices reflect all relevant information.
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General A type of economic sanction that totally disallows the imports of a specific product or all products from a specific country.
E Business Terms
Embargo
Embargoes are typically placed in time of war.
General An emerging market has a very high growth rate, which yields enormous market potential. It is distinguished by the recent
E Business Terms
Emerging Market
progress it has made in economic liberalization.
General Emerging Stock The stock markets of emerging economies. These markets typically have higher expected returns than established markets
E Business Terms Markets but also higher risk.
General
E Business Terms
Employment Rate The ratio, in percent, of the number of employed persons to total labor force.
General Endogenous Price or input cost uncertainty that is within the control of the firm, such as when the act of investing reveals information about
E Business Terms Uncertainty price or input cost.
General
E Business Terms
Engagement The assumption of payment responsibility in respect of a letter of credit, e.g.
General An individual (sole trader), partnership, a body corporate, a corporation, an incorporated association or body of persons, a trust
E Business Terms
Entity
or superannuation fund.
General Someone who starts a new business venture; someone who recognizes and pursues opportunities others may not see as
E Business Terms
Entrepreneur
clearly, and finds the resources necessary to accomplish his or her goals.
Entrepreneur in Heat describes an entrepreneur that continues to develop new products and services beyond what the venture
General Entrepreneur In Heat
E can support and inadvertently may diminish the focus and effectiveness of the activities supporting the venture’s primary
Business Terms (EIH) revenue streams.
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General
E Business Terms
Equity Business ownership; capital. Equity can be calculated as the difference between assets and liabilities.
General
E Business Terms
Equity capital Money provided by the business owner/s to finance the business.
General
E Business Terms
Equity financing The sales of some portion of ownership in a venture to gain additional capital for start-up.
General Equity-linked
E Business Terms Eurobonds
A Eurobond with a convertibility option or warrant attached.
General
E Business Terms
Erosion Cash-flow amount transferred to a new project from customers and sales of other products of the firm.
The single currency of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) introduced in January 1999 and became the official
General
E Business Terms
Euro currency of EMU member countries on January 1, 2002. EMU members are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, and Spain.
General
E Business Terms
Eurobond A bond that is denominated in a currency other than that of the country of issue.
General Deposits and loans denominated in one currency and traded in a market outside the borders of the country issuing that
E Business Terms
Eurocurrencies
currency (e.g., Eurodollars).
General
E Business Terms
Eurocurrency Market A money market for currencies held in the form of deposits in countries other than that where the currency is issued.
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General
E Business Terms
Eurodollars Dollar-denominated deposits held in a country other than the United States.
General European Article A standard international numbering code system that is used primarily in retail applications. It is also compatible with the U.S.
E Business Terms Number (EAN) UPC (Universal Product Code).
European Bank for

General
E Business Terms
Reconstruction and One of four major regional development banks currently operating in the global economy.
Development (EBRD)
General European Central

E Business Terms Bank (ECB)
The central bank for European Union (EU). It sets monetary policy for member countries.
European Committee An organization composed of the national standards organizations of 30 European countries. The European Committee for
General
E Business Terms
for Standardization Standardization, or CEN, seeks to promote the European economy in the global market by providing an efficient and
(CEN) standardized infrastructure for trade.
General European Currency

E Business Terms Unit (ECU)
A trade-weighted basket of currencies in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Union.
European Exchange
General The exchange rate system used by countries in the European Union in which exchange rates are pegged within bands around
E Business Terms
Rate Mechanism
an ERM central value.
(ERM)
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an international organization established in 1960. It is composed by Iceland,
General European Free Trade Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland promoting free trade and economic integration. There are 3 main branches of the
E Business Terms Association (EFTA) EFTA: the EFTA Secretariat, Surveillance Authority and EFTA Court. Its function is to create a free trade area among its
Member States.
General European Monetary

E Business Terms System (EMS)
An exchange rate system based on cooperation between European Union central banks.
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General
E Business Terms
European Option An option that can be exercised only at expiration (contrast with American option).
General
E Business Terms
European Terms A foreign exchange quotation that states the foreign currency price of one U.S. dollar (contrast with American terms).
General
E Business Terms
European Union (EU) An intergovernmental organization which coordinates foreign, economic, and judicial policy among its 27 member nations.
General Evaluating ideas and The process of considering ideas versus opportunities, and then screening those opportunities using objective criteria as well
E Business Terms opportunities as personal criteria.
General
E Business Terms
Everett Rogers Author who studied and published work on the diffusion of innovation.
General
E Business Terms
Exaction Demanding or imposing various fees from a position of authority.
General In an insurance policy, excess clauses specify that the policyholder will be responsible for a portion of claims under certain
E Business Terms
Excess
conditions.
General The price of one currency in terms of another, i.e. the number of units of one currency that may be exchanged for one unit of
E Business Terms
Exchange Rate
another currency.
General
E Business Terms
Exchange Risk The risk that losses may result from the changes in the relative values of different currencies.
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General
E Business Terms
Excise tax A tax on the consumption of certain goods either made in or imported into a country.
General
E Business Terms
Exclusive distribution A distribution strategy whereby a producer sells its products or services in only one retail outlet in a specific geographical area.
General
E Business Terms
Exercise Price The price at which an option can be exercised (also called the striking price).
Export-Import Bank of the United States. Provides guarantees of working capital loans for U.S. exporters, guarantees the
repayment of loans or makes loans to foreign purchasers of U.S. goods and services, and provides credit insurance against
non-payment by foreign buyers for political or commercial risk. Currently, the Bank is focusing on critical areas such as
General
E Business Terms
EXIMBANK emphasizing exports to developing countries, aggressively countering trade subsidies of other governments, stimulating small
business transactions, promoting the export of environmentally beneficial goods and services, and expanding project finance
capabilities. Ex-Im Bank is not an aid or development agency, but a government held corporation, managed by a Board of
Directors.
General Exogenous
E Business Terms Uncertainty
Price or input cost uncertainty that is outside the control of the firm.
General
E Business Terms
Expenses costs incurred by a business in earning income, for example, rent, advertising, wages etc.
General A visual representation, often based on a function of time, from exposure to a process that offers greater information and
E Business Terms
Experience curve
results in enhanced efficiency and operations advantage.
General
E Business Terms
Expiry Date The date when a letter of credit is no longer valid - i.e. the date beyond which it cannot be used.
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General A tax that is explicitly collected by a government; includes income, withholding, property, sales, and value-added taxes and
E Business Terms
Explicit Tax
tariffs.
General
E Business Terms
Export Any resource, intermediate good, or final good or service that producers in one country sell to buyers in another country.
General Export Administration EAR carry both civil and criminal penalties. The EAR are available by subscription from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.
E Business Terms Regulations (EAR) Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20401 (tel no: 202-275 2091).
General An individual or firm that helps to locate and introduce buyers and seller in international business for a commission but does
E Business Terms
Export Broker
not take part in actual sales transaction.
General Export Credit

E Business Terms Insurance
Insurance provided to exporters in order to protect them against commercial and political risks.
General Export Financing In the U.S. tax code, interest income derived from goods manufactured in the United States and sold outside the United States
E Business Terms Interest as long as not more than 50 percent of the value is imported into the United States.
General A general export license covers the exportation of goods not restricted under the terms of a validated export license. No formal
E Business Terms
Export License
application or written authorization is needed to ship exports under a general export license.
General Quantitative restrictions imposed by exporting countries to limit exports to specified foreign markets, usually as a follow-up to
E Business Terms
Export Restraints
formal or informal agreements reached with importing countries.
General
E Business Terms
Export Subsidies Any form of government payment that helps an exporter or manufacturing company to lower its export costs.
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General Export Trading A company that facilitates the export of goods and services. An ETC can either act as the export department for producers or
E Business Terms Company (ETC) take title to the product and export for its own account.
General
E Business Terms
Expropriation A specific type of political risk in which a government seizes foreign assets.
General
E Business Terms
External Market A market for financial securities that are placed outside the borders of the country issuing that currency.
General
E Business Terms
Extraterritoriality A government practice which applies its laws outside its territorial boundaries.
General
F Business Terms
Face Value The value of a bond that appears on its face. Also referred to as par value or principal.
General
F Business Terms
Factor Model A model that assumes a linear relation between an asset's expected return and one or more systematic risk factors.
General Sale of an accounts receivable balance to buyers (factors) that are willing and able to bear the costs and risks of credit and
F Business Terms
Factoring
collections.
General Failure rule, common Entrepreneurial ventures most often fail due to one or more of these four issues: 1) Inadequate sales (39%) 2) Competitive
F Business Terms causes weaknesses (21%) 3) Excessive operating expenses (11%) 4) Uncollected receivables (9%).
General Fast Track

F Business Terms Negotiating
Authority provided by the U.S. Congress to the Executive Branch to negotiate amendment-proof trade agreements.
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General The concept that if a venture can just get “2%” of total market share it will be successful. This percentage can be unattainable
F Business Terms
Fatal 2% rule
based on the approach, limited resources, and/or structure of the industry.
General An examination of a particular project or business to assess its chances of operating successfully, before committing large
F Business Terms
Feasibility study
amounts of money to it.
Features,
General Advantages and A FAB analysis explores the features, advantages, and benefits of a product or service offering. Marketing plans need to
F Business Terms Benefits Analysis understand these concepts in order to develop effective marketing programs.
(FAB)
General Federal Trade The FTC is an indepedent US government agency established in 1914 by Woodrow Wilson. Its main goals are consumer
F Business Terms Commision (FTC) protection and prevention of trust formation.
General Fidelity guarantee

F Business Terms insurance
Insurance against losses resulting from the dishonesty of employee/s.
General Fighting brand

F Business Terms strategy
Adding a new brand to confront competitive brands in an established product category.
General
F Business Terms
Finance Money resources
General
F Business Terms
Financial Contagion The spread of a financial crisis from one country or region to other countries or regions.
General
F Business Terms
Financial Engineering The process of innovation by which new financial products are created.
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General
F Business Terms
Financial Innovation The process of designing new financial products, such as exotic currency options and swaps.
General
F Business Terms
Financial Market The market for the exchange of credit and capital in an economy. It consists of the money market and the capital market.
General The corporation’s choices regarding the debt-equity mix, currencies of denomination, maturity structure, method of financing
F Business Terms
Financial Policy
investment projects, and hedging decisions with a goal of maximizing the value of the firm to some set of stakeholders.
General The risk of unexpected changes in a financial price, including currency (foreign exchange) risk, interest rate risk, and
F Business Terms
Financial Price Risk
commodity price risk.
General
F Financial Risk Financial risk refers to unexpected events in a country’s financial, economic, or business life.
Business Terms
General Financial Service In the U.S. tax code, income derived from financial services such as banking, insurance, leasing, financial service
F Business Terms Income management fees, and swap income.
General
F Business Terms
Financial statements Formal reports prepared from accounting records describing the financial position and performance of the business.
General
F Business Terms
Financial Strategy The way in which the firm pursues its financial objectives.
General The proportion of debt and equity and the particular forms of debt and equity chosen to finance the assets of the firm. Also
F Business Terms
Financial Structure
known as capital structure.
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General
F Business Terms
Financial year An accounting period of 12 months, often coincident, for convenience, with the fiscal year (1 July to 30 June).
General Obtaining money resources. Businesses usually have to obtain finance at some time, either to go into business or expand
F Business Terms
Financing
operations.
General A company that attempts to gain an unchallengeable, privileged market position by being the first to establish itself in a given
F Business Terms
First mover
market.
General First mover

F Business Terms advantage
Key first mover advantages include: 1) Reputation effect 2) Experience curve 3) Customer commitment and loyalty.
General First-to-market Also know as "first-mover advantage." The idea of first-mover advantage is that the initial occupant of a strategic position or
F Business Terms Advantage niche (market segment) gains access to resources and capabilities that a follower cannot match.
Standard accounting practice allows the accounting year to begin in any month. Fiscal years are numbered according to the
General
F Business Terms
Fiscal year year in which they end. For example, a fiscal year ending in February of 1992 is Fiscal 1992, even though most of the year
takes place in 1991.
Porter’s model that considers these forces as they impact and industry and the overall competitive climate: 1) Risk of entry by
General
F Business Terms
Five forces model potential competitors 2) Bargaining power of suppliers 3) Bargaining power of buyers 4) Threat of substitute products 5) Rivalry
among established firms.
General The land, buildings, vehicles, materials and equipment owned by a business, which are used to earn revenue rather than being
F Business Terms
Fixed assets
for sale.
General A cost that is fixed in total for a given period of time and for given volume levels. It is not dependent on the amount of goods or
F Business Terms
Fixed Cost
services produced during the period.
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General Fixed Exchange Rate An exchange rate system in which governments stand ready to buy and sell currency at official exchange rates. Fluctuations of
F Business Terms System this currency are not possible.
General Fixed Forward

F Business Terms Contract
Currency is bought or sold at a given future date.
Debts; money that must be paid. Usually, debt on terms of longer than five years are fixed liabilities. (Also called Long-term
General
F Business Terms
Fixed liabilities Liabilities.) Fixed Liabilities, in contrast to Floating Liabilities, are secured by assets with a stable value, such as a building or a
piece of equipment.
General
F Business Terms
Flight of Capital The movement of capital from one place to another in order to avoid loss or increase gain.
General Floating Currency An exchange rate system under which a government is not obligated to declare that its currency is convertible into a fixed
F Business Terms System amount of another currency.
General Floating Exchange An exchange rate system in which currency values are allowed to fluctuate according to supply and demand forces in the
F Business Terms Rate market without direct interference by government authorities.
General Debts; money that must be paid. Floating Liabilities, in contrast to Fixed Liabilities, are secured by assets with a constantly
F Business Terms
Floating liabilities
changing value, such as a company’s Accounts Receivable (debtors). These are usually short-term loans.
General In banking and finance, a floor can be negotiated and agreed upon when the interest rate is dependent on the market interest
F Business Terms
Floor
rate.
Used with FOB (Free on Board), FAS, C&F, or CFR (but not CIF) quotations, FOB sales endorsement to an open marine
General
F Business Terms
FOB Endorsement policy can cover transit risk from the point of origin until title transfers. In these instances, the exporter relies on the importer to
insure.
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General Small groups of people, usually between 9 and 12 in number, representing target audiences, that are brought together to
F Business Terms
Focus group
discuss a topic that will offer insight for product development and/or marketing efforts.
A United States agency which has power to set standards for food, drugs, cosmetics, and devices. Before new drugs can be
General Food and Drug
F approved by the FDA and be released to the market, they must undergo extensive laboratory testing within the pharmaceutical
Business Terms Administration (FDA) company. The company must then file a formal and thorough application for approval with the FDA.
General The title of a standard clause in marine contracts exempting the parties for non-fulfillment of their obligations as a result of
F Business Terms
Force Majeure
conditions beyond their control, such as Acts of God or war.
General A grant of money, technical assistance, capital equipment, or other assistance typically extended by richer nations to poorer
F Business Terms
Foreign Aid
nations.
General Foreign Base In the U.S. tax code, a category of Subpart F income that includes foreign holding company income and foreign base company
F Business Terms Company Income sales and service income.
General Bonds that are issued in a domestic market by a foreign borrower, denominated in domestic currency, marketed to domestic
F Business Terms
Foreign Bonds
residents, and regulated by the domestic authorities.
General
F Business Terms
Foreign Bottom An ocean vessel built or registered in a foreign country.
General A foreign affiliate that is legally a part of the parent firm. In the U.S. tax code, foreign branch income is taxed as it is earned in
F Business Terms
Foreign Branch
the foreign country.
General
F Business Terms
Foreign Debt Money owed by a nation to foreign investors, banks, or governments.
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General Foreign Direct

F Business Terms Investment (FDI)
The act of building productive capacity directly in a foreign country.
General Foreign Equity

F Business Terms Requirements
Investment rules that limit foreign ownership to a minority holding in a company.
General
F Business Terms
Foreign Exchange Currency of another country, or a financial instrument that facilitates payment from one currency to another.
General Foreign Exchange

F Business Terms Broker
Brokers serving as matchmakers in the foreign exchange market that do not put their own money at risk.

F Business Terms Dealer
A financial institution making a market in foreign exchange.
General Foreign Exchange Networks of commercial banks, investment banks, and other financial institutions that convert, buy, and sell currencies in the
F Business Terms Markets global economy.
General Foreign Exchange The price of one nation's currency in terms of another nation's currency. The foreign exchange rate is specified as the amount
F Business Terms Rate of one currency that can be traded per unit of another.

F Business Terms Risk
The risk of unexpected changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Also known as currency risk.
General
F Business Terms
Foreign Remittances The transfer across national boundaries of any kind of funds.
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General Foreign Sales In the U.S. tax code, a specialized sales corporation whose income is lumped into the same income basket as that of a
F Business Terms Corporation (FSC) domestic international sales corporation.
General Foreign Tax Credit In the U.S. tax code, a credit against domestic U.S. income taxes up to the amount of foreign taxes paid on foreign-source
F Business Terms (FTC) income.
General
F Business Terms
Foreign Trade Zone A physical area in which the government allows firms to delay or avoid paying tariffs on imports.
General Foreign-source
F Business Terms Income
Income earned from foreign operations.
General A form of factoring in which large, medium- to long-term receivables are sold to buyers (forfaiters) that are willing and able to
F Business Terms
Forfaiting
bear the costs and risks of credit and collections.
General Forms of market Market research can be casual, affordable, and effective for the entrepreneur. Jay Conrad Levinson provides examples of this
F Business Terms research form of market research approach in “Guerrilla Marketing Attack.”
General A commitment to exchange a specified amount of one currency for a specified amount of another currency on a specified
F Business Terms
Forward Contract
future date.
General
F Business Terms
Forward Discount A currency whose nominal value in the forward market is lower than in the spot market (contrast with forward premium).
General Forward Foreign

F Business Terms Exchange
An agreement to purchase or sell a defined amount of forward currency in the future at a certain fixed rate.
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General A market for forward contracts in which trades are made for future delivery according to an agreed-upon delivery date,
F Business Terms
Forward Market
exchange rate, and amount.
General
F Business Terms
Forward Parity When the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of future spot exchange rates.
General
F Business Terms
Forward Premium A currency whose nominal value in the forward market is higher than in the spot market (contrast with forward discount).
General A receipt issued by a carrier to the exporter making use of its services which, to reduce the carrier's liability, notes that the
F Business Terms
Foul Bill of Lading
goods were in some way damaged, short in quantity, or improperly packaged.
General A business arrangement in which knowledge, expertise and often a trade mark or trade name are licensed to an operator,
F Business Terms
Franchise
generally for an initial fee and a yearly payment.
General An agreement in which a domestic company (the franchiser) licenses its trade name and/or business system to an
F Business Terms
Franchise Agreement
independent company (the franchisee) in a foreign market.
General
F Business Terms
Franchisee The purchaser of a franchise licence who operates one or more outlets of the franchise business.
General A parent company grants another independent entity the privilege to do business in a pre-specified manner, including
F Business Terms
Franchising
manufacturing, selling products, marketing technology and other business approach.
General
F Business Terms
Franchisor The owner of a franchise system
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General
F Free Cash Flow Cash flow after all positive-NPV projects have been exhausted in the firm’s main line of business.
Business Terms
General
F Business Terms
Free Market The type of market in which goods and services cross borders freely, unrestrained by tariffs or any other sort of barrier to trade.
General A trade term requiring the seller to deliver goods via a method of transportation designated by the buyer. The seller fulfills its
F Business Terms
Free On Board (FOB)
obligations to deliver when the goods have passed through the seller's ownership and prepared for delivery to the buyer.
General
F Business Terms
Free Port An area such as a port city into which merchandise may legally be moved without payment of duties.
General Free Trade Area of A proposed hemispheric trade zone that would cover all of the countries in North, South, and Latin America. The FTAA is
F Business Terms the Americas (FTAA) highly controversial.
General An area designated by the government to which goods may be imported for processing and subsequent export on duty-free
F Business Terms
Free Trade Zone
basis. Merchandise may be stored, used or manufactured in the zone and reexported without duties being paid.
Freely Floating
General An exchange rate system in which currency values are allowed to fluctuate according to supply and demand forces in the
F Business Terms
Exchange Rate
market without direct interference by government authorities.
System
An independent business that handles export shipment on behalf of the shipper without vested interest in the products. A
General
F Business Terms
Freight Forwarder freight forwarder is a good source of information and assistance on export regulations and documentation, shipping methods,
and foreign import regulations.
General
F Business Terms
Freight Shippers Also know as freight forwarders. Freight shippers are agents used to coordinate the logistics of transportation.
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General Frequency
F Business Terms Distribution
The organization of data to show how often certain values or ranges of values occur.
General Activities which encourage repeat purchasing through a formal program enrollment process to develop loyalty and commitment
F Business Terms
Frequency marketing
from the customer base. Frequency marketing is also referred to as loyalty programs.
Front end and back end describe program interfaces relative to the user. The front end, here, is the appearance of your
website. It is the graphic design and HTML portion — some people call this the user interface or UI. In contrast, the portion of
General
F Business Terms
Front end (websites) the application you or your developers work with is the back-end. The back end handles the dynamic parts of the site, such as
a newsletter, an administration page, a registration database, a contact page or more complicated Web applications. Your
back end interfaces with your UI and makes your website work.
General A lease in which the lessor recovers, through the lease payments, all costs incurred in the lease plus an acceptable rate of
F Business Terms
Full Payout Lease
return, without any reliance upon the leased equipment's future residual value.
General Full-cost price

F Business Terms strategies
Costs that consider variable and fixed cost (total cost) in the pricing of a product of service.
General Fundamental A method of predicting exchange rates using the relationships of exchange rates to fundamental economic variables such as
F Business Terms Analysis GNP growth, money supply, and trade balances.
General
F Business Terms
Fusion insurance Covers loss caused by damage to an electric motor by an electric current, and is particularly important for refrigerated stocks.
General
F Business Terms
Future Value Value of a sum after investing it over multiple periods. Also called compound value.
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General Future value The process of projecting the future value of a venture and/or an investment in the venture. It typically considers an expected
F Business Terms projections rate of return, inflation, and the period of time to assess future value.
General Futures Commission

F Business Terms Merchant
A brokerage house that is authorized by a futures exchange to trade with retail clients.
A commitment to exchange a specified amount of one currency for a specified amount of another currency at a specified time
General
F Business Terms
Futures Contract in the future. Futures contracts are periodically marked-to-market, so that changes in value are settled throughout the life of the
contract. Exchange-traded currency futures are marked-to-market on a daily basis.
General A formal organization of 7 highly industrialized democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and
G Business Terms
G-7
the United States.
General
G Business Terms
G-8 The G-7 countries plus Russia.
General
G Gearing The ratio between the business’s debt and equity finance.
Business Terms
General Agreement
General A post-World War II agreement designed to promote freer international trade among the nations of the world. The GATT was
G Business Terms
on Tariffs and Trade
replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994.
(GATT)
Generalized
General Autoregressive A time series model in which returns at each instant of time are normally distributed but volatility is a function of recent history
G Business Terms Conditional of the series.
Heteroskedasticity
A program of tariff preferences for designed to encourage the economic growth of certain developing countries. In accordance
General Generalized System
G with the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), developed countries let the manufactured and semi-manufactured goods
Business Terms of Preferences (GSP) of eligible developing countries enter with either no duty or a lower rate than is applied to other countries.
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Generally Accepted
General
G Business Terms
Accounting Principles A common set of accounting concepts, standards, and procedures by which financial statements are prepared.
(GAAP)
General Geocentric A multinational in which the subsidiaries are neither satellites nor independent city states, but parts of a whole whose focus is
G Business Terms Multinational on worldwide objectives as well as local objectives, each part making its unique contribution with its unique competence.
General
G Business Terms
Global Bond A bond that trades in the Eurobond market as well as in one or more national bond markets.
General The international network of individuals, businesses, governments, and multilateral organizations which collectively make
G Business Terms
Global Economy
production and consumption decisions.
General
G Business Terms
Global Quota An import quota set by a nation which specifies the allowed quantity of a product from all countries.
General A global movement to increase the flow of goods, services, people, real capital, and money across national borders in order to
G Business Terms
Globalization
create a more integrated and interdependent world economy.
General Gold Exchange An exchange rate system used from 1925 to 1931 in which the United States and England were allowed to hold only gold
G Business Terms Standard reserves while other nations could hold gold, U.S. dollars, or pounds sterling as reserves.
General An exchange rate system used prior to 1914 in which gold was used to settle national trade balances. Also called the “classical
G Business Terms
Gold Standard
gold standard.”
General
G Business Terms
Goodwill The accounting treatment of an intangible asset such as the takeover premium in a merger or acquisition.
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General The point at which a developing country's eligibility for Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is terminated for the reason
G Business Terms
Graduation
of sufficient economic progression.
General
G Business Terms
Gray-market Imports Gray-market imports are parallel distribution of genuine goods by intermediaries other than authorized channel members.
General A Greenfield Investment is the investment in a manufacturing plant, office, or other physical company-related structure or
G Business Terms
Greenfield
group of structures in an area where no previous facilities exist.
General
G Greenmail Buying shares on the open market in the hope that the target’s business partners will buy back the shares at inflated prices.
Business Terms
General The total overall amount. For example, gross profit is the trading profit of a business without any deductions for business
G Business Terms
Gross
expenses.
A measure of the market value of goods and services produced by a nation. Unlike Gross National Product, GDP excludes
General Gross Domestic
G Business Terms Product (GDP)
profits made by domestic firms overseas, as well as the share of reinvested earning in domestic firms' foreign-based
operations.
The difference between total sales revenue and total cost of goods sold (also called total cost of sales). This can also be
General
G Business Terms
Gross margin expressed on a per unit basis, as the difference between unit selling price and unit cost of goods sold. Gross margin can be
expressed in dollar or percentage terms.
Gross margin divided by sales, displayed as a percentage. Acceptable levels depend on the nature of the business. There are
General
G Business Terms
Gross margin percent providers who can deliver standard gross margins for different types of industries based on SIC (Standard Industry
Classification) codes that categorize industries.
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Previously known as Gross National Product, Gross National Income comprises the total value of goods and services
produced within a country (i.e. its Gross Domestic Product), together with its income received from other countries (notably
General Gross National
G Business Terms Income (GNI)
interest and dividends), less similar payments made to other countries. For example, if a British-owned company operating in
another country sends some of their incomes (profits) back to UK, UK’s GNI is enhanced. Similarly, a British production unit of
a US company sending profit to the US will affect the British GNI but will not reduce it since it is not included in the first place.
GNP is the total value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a particular year, plus income earned by its
citizens who are working abroad, minus income of non-residents located in that country. It is essentially the measurement of
General Gross National
G Business Terms Product (GNP)
the value of all goods and services produced by a country's citizens regardless of their location. Its difference with Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) is that GDP measures the total production within a country regardless of the citizenship of the
producer.
General
G Business Terms
Gross profit The excess of net sales over cost of goods sold usually expressed as a percentage.
General A constant stream of cash flows without end that is expected to rise indefinitely. For example, cash flows to the landlord of an
G Business Terms
Growing Perpetuity
apartment building might be expected to rise a certain percentage each year.
General The positive net present value opportunities in which the firm has not yet invested. The value of growth options reflects the time
G Business Terms
Growth Options
value of the firm’s current investment in real assets as well as the option value of the firm’s potential future investments.
General Stocks with high price/book or price/earnings ratios. Historically, growth stocks have had lower average returns than value
G Business Terms
Growth Stocks
stocks (stocks with low price/book or PE ratios) in a variety of countries.
General Some supplies are GST-free, which means you do not charge GST for them but you are entitled to claim input tax credits for
G Business Terms
GST-free
anything acquired or imported to use in your business.
General Examples of mini, maxi,and non-media tools: Mini: canvassing, personal letters, calls, circulars, brochures, classified ads,
G Business Terms
Guerrilla marketing
Maxi: yellow pages and signs Non-Media: public relations, advertising.
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Effective and pragmatic marketing can be done with limited resources and should focus on meeting the needs of existing
General Guerrilla marketing
G Business Terms concept
customers in everything that is done, while building the base of prospects through creating additional awareness within the
market.
General Guerrilla marketing This is a inverse approach to traditional marketing budgeting. Levinson states: Invest 10% in the “universe” Invest 30% in you
G Business Terms investment strategy prospects Invest 60% in your customers.
General
G Business Terms
Guideline Lease A lease written under criteria established by the IRS to determine the availability of tax benefits to the lessor.
A council created in 1981 and composed of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. It is a
General Gulf Cooperation
G Business Terms Council (GCC)
forum to coordinate and integrate economic policies between these six countries, which account for about 40% of oil in the
international market.
General Harmonized Tariff

H Business Terms Schedule (HTS)
A method of classification used by many countries to determine tariffs on imports.
Harvesting is most often referring to selling a business or product line, as when a company sells a product line or division or a
General
H Business Terms
Harvesting family sells a business. Harvesting is also occasionally used to refer to sales of a product or product line towards the end of a
product life cycle.
Heavily Indebted The HIPC Initiative is a major international response to the burdensome external debt held by the world's poorest, most
General
H Business Terms
Poor Countries indebted countries. It originated in 1996 as a joint undertaking of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Initiative Also known as the HIPC Initiative.
A position or operation that offsets an underlying exposure. For example, a forward currency hedge uses a forward currency
General
H Business Terms
Hedge contract to offset the exposure of an underlying position in a foreign currency. Hedges reduce the total variability of the
combined position.
General
H Business Terms
Hedge Funds Private investment partnerships with a general manager and a small number of limited partners.
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General The country-specific hedge portfolio in the International Asset Pricing Model serves as a store of value (like the risk-free asset
H Business Terms
Hedge Portfolio
in the CAPM) as well as a hedge against the currency risk of the market portfolio.
General
H Business Terms
Hedge Quality Measured by the r-square in a regression of spot rate changes on futures price changes.
General
H Business Terms
Hedge Ratio The ratio of derivatives contracts to the underlying risk exposure.
General
H Business Terms
Hedging Reducing the risk of a cash position by using the futures instruments to offset the price movement of the cash asset.
General High-withholding-tax
H Business Terms Interest Income
In the U.S. tax code, interest income that has been subject to a foreign gross withholding tax of five percent or more.
System for financing the purchase of plant and equipment, where the ownership is vested with the lender until the final
General
H Business Terms
Hire purchase payment is made. The borrower is required to place a deposit and make periodic (usually monthly) repayments at a flat rate of
interest.
General
H Business Terms
Historical Volatility Volatility estimated from a historical time series.
General Holding-period
H Business Terms Return
The rate of return over a given period.
General
H Business Terms
Home Asset Bias The tendency of investors to overinvest in assets based in their own country.
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General Homogeneous
H Business Terms Expectations
Idea that all individuals have the same beliefs concerning future investments, profits, and dividends.
General An extremely high rate of inflation, often exceeding several hundred or several thousand percent, that causes a country's
H Business Terms
Hyperinflation
money to become practically worthless.
General The behavior of firms that fail to enter markets that appear attractive and, once invested, persist in operating at a loss. This
H Business Terms
Hysteresis
behavior is characteristic of situations with high entry and exit costs along with high uncertainty.
General
I Business Terms
Ideas vs opportunities Ideas are the basis of potential business opportunities. Good ideas do not necessarily represent good opportunities.
General
I Business Terms
Implicit Tax Lower (higher) before-tax required returns on assets that are subject to lower (higher) tax rates.
General
I Business Terms
Implied Volatility The volatility that is implied by an option value given the other determinants of option value.
General
I Business Terms
Import Any resource, intermediate good, or final good or service that buyers in one country purchase from sellers in another country.
General A document required and issued by some national government authorizing the importation of goods into their individual
I Business Terms
Import License
countries.
An impression occurs each time an advertisement is seen by a potential customer. For example, in online marketing, an
General
I Impressions impression happens when an advertisement such as a banner ad loads on a user’s screen, whether for the first time, when
Business Terms returning to a page, or when the ad cycles through dynamically.
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General
I Business Terms
Income Money that is being earned by the business.
General In the U.S. tax code, income is allocated to one of a number of separate income categories. Losses in one basket may not be
I Business Terms
Income Baskets
used to offset gains in another basket.
General
I Business Terms
Income Statement Financial report that summarizes a firm's performance over a specified time period.
General
I Business Terms
Incremental IRR Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on the incremental investment from choosing a large project instead of a smaller project.
General A clause in which the one party indemnifies the other. In leasing, generally a clause whereby the lessee indemnifies the lessor
I Business Terms
Indemnity Clause
from loss of tax benefits.
General Risk protection for actions for which a business is liable. Insurance that a business carries to cover the possibility of loss from
I Business Terms
Indemnity insurance
lawsuits in the event the business or its agents were found at fault when an action occurred.
General
I Business Terms
Independent Project A project whose acceptance or rejection is independent of the acceptance or rejection of other projects.
General
I Business Terms
Index Futures A futures contract that allows investors to buy or sell an index (such as a foreign stock index) in the futures market.
General
I Business Terms
Index Options A call or put option contract on an index (such as a foreign stock market index).
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General
I Business Terms
Index Swap A swap of a market index for some other asset (such as a stock-for-stock or debt-for-stock swap).
General Indication Pricing

I Business Terms Schedule
A schedule of rates for an interest rate or currency swap.
General Indirect Costs of

I Business Terms Financial Distress
Costs of financial distress that are indirectly incurred prior to formal bankruptcy or liquidation.
General The end-users (e.g., consumers) of the products and services purchased from the wholesalers, retailers, and consignees - the
I Business Terms
Indirect Customers
direct customers of the seller.
Indirect
General Diversification benefits provided by the multinational corporation that are not available to investors through their portfolio
I Business Terms
Diversification
investment.
Benefits
General
I Indirect Exporting Export products to foreign markets by using an intermediary, usually export trading company based in the exporter’s country.
Business Terms
General The price of a unit of domestic currency in foreign currency terms such as DM1.5272/$ for a U.S. resident (contrast with direct
I Business Terms
Indirect Terms
terms).
General Training for new employees regarding conditions of service, physical layout of the workplace, safety rules, local conventions
I Business Terms
induction training
and customs and supervisory procedures.
The infant industry argument is a rationale for the “temporary protection” of a new industry or firm in order to help it become
General Infant Industry
I Business Terms Argument
established domestically and later become competitive worldwide. These protections consist of tariff and non-tariff barriers to
imports, preventing global competition from entering the market.
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General The general increase in the price level herein measured by the growth rate in the GNP Implicit Price Index or the general price
I Business Terms
Inflation Rate
deflator.
General Informational
I Business Terms Efficiency
Whether or not market prices reflect information and thus the true (or intrinsic) value of the underlying asset.
General Initial Public Offering

I A corporation’s initial efforts of raising capital through the sale of securities on the public stock market.
Business Terms (IPO)
Innovation:
General The determination if an innovation is a “new and improved” concept taken to the next level (evolutionary), or the rare innovation
I Business Terms
evolutionary or
that revolutionizes a technology or concept to the product or services.
revolutionary
General One type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework describing the first group to purchase a new product
I Business Terms
Innovators
or service.
General You are entitled to an input tax credit for the GST included in the price you pay for an acquisition or the GST paid for an
I Business Terms
Input tax credits
importation if it is for use in your enterprise.
General Some supplies are input taxed, which means you do not charge GST for them but neither are you entitled to input tax credits
I Business Terms
Input taxed
for anything acquired or imported to make the supply.
General Those assets of a business, which cannot be assigned a firm, fixed value, such as leases, franchises, goodwill and patent
I Business Terms
Intangible assets
rights.
General Integrated Financial

I Business Terms Market
A market in which there are no barriers to financial flows and purchasing power parity holds across equivalent assets.
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General Integrated marketing

I Business Terms communications
The practice of blending different elements of the communication mix in mutually reinforcing ways.
Material or communicable result in forms of discoveries, inventions, designs and literary and art works of scientific, humanistic,
General literary, and artistic endeavor. It includes, but is not limited to, works in the form of scientific discoveries and inventions,
I Business Terms
Intellectual Property
designs, patents, trademarks, books, monographs, papers, paintings, drawings and sculpture, performances, computer
software, and lecture and conference presentations.
General Intellectual Property Patents, copyrights, and proprietary technologies and processes that are the basis of the multinational corporation’s
I Business Terms Rights competitive advantage over local firms.
General A distribution strategy whereby a producer attempts to sell its products or services in as many retail outlets as possible within a
I Business Terms
Intensive distribution
geographical area without exclusivity.
General Inter-American A regional development bank designed to promote sustainable economic development in the Western Hemisphere. Its
I Business Terms Development Bank headquarters are located in Washington, D.C.
General
I Interbank Spread The difference between a bank’s offer and bid rates for deposits in the Eurocurrency market.
Business Terms
General
I Business Terms
Interest The cost of borrowing money.
General Interest is paid on debts, and interest expense is deducted from profits as expenses. Interest expense is either long-term or
I Business Terms
Interest expense
short-term interest.
General
I Business Terms
Interest Rate Risk The risk of unexpected changes in an interest rate.
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General An agreement to exchange interest payments for a specific period of time on a given principal amount. The most common
I Business Terms
Interest Rate Swap
interest rate swap is a fixed-for-floating coupon swap. The notional principal is typically not exchanged.
General
I Business Terms
Inter-firm comparison A comparison between the financial and productive performance of a business with the industry averages.
General
I Business Terms
Intermediated Market A financial market in which a financial institution (usually a commercial bank) stands between borrowers and savers.
General
I Business Terms
Intermodal The use of two or more modes of transportation to complete a cargo move; truck/rail/ship, or truck/air, for example.
General
I Business Terms
Internal Market A market for financial securities denominated in the currency of a host country and placed within that country.
General Internal Rate of A discount rate at which the net present value of an investment is zero. The IRR is a method of evaluating capital expenditure
I Business Terms Return (IRR) proposals.
International
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent, privately funded organization that sets international
General Accounting
I Business Terms Standards Board
accounting standards. The IASB is committed to developing a single set of high quality, understandable and enforceable global
accounting standards that require transparent and comparable information in general purpose financial statements.
(IASB)
General International Asset The international version of the CAPM in which investors in each country share the same consumption basket and purchasing
I Business Terms Pricing Model (IAPM) power parity holds.
International Bank for

General Also called the World Bank, an international organization created at Breton Woods in 1944 to help in the reconstruction and
I Business Terms
Reconstruction and
development of its member nations.
Development
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General Bonds that are traded outside the country of the issuer. International bonds are either foreign bonds trading in a foreign
I Business Terms
International Bonds
national market or Eurobonds trading in the international market.
International
General International non-governmental body concerned with promotion of trade and harmonization of trading practice. Responsible for
I Business Terms
Chamber of
drafting and publishing.
Commerce (ICC)
The IEA is an autonomous agency linked with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is the
authoritative source for energy statistics worldwide and an energy policy advisor for 26 member countries. It was founded
General International Energy
I Business Terms Agency (IEA)
during the oil crisis of 1973-74 and was initially focused on coordinating efforts between member countries in times of oil
supply emergencies. Since then it has expanded its role to encompass climate change policies, market reform, energy
technology collaboration, and outreach to the rest of the world.
The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and
General International Labour
I Business Terms Organization (ILO)
internationally recognized human and labour rights. The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of
conventions and recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights.
General International An international organization designed to promote global economic stability and development. It compiles statistics on cross-
I Business Terms Monetary Fund (IMF) border transactions and publishes a monthly summary of each country’s balance of payments.
General International
I Business Terms Monetary System
The global network of governmental and commercial institutions within which currency exchange rates are determined.
International ISO is a worldwide federation of national standardization bodies of more than 140 countries. Established as a non-government
General
I Business Terms
Organization for organization in 1947, it develops international standards and publishes them. All branches other than electrical engineering
Standardization (ISO) standards are within the scope of ISO.
The efforts undertaken by a country or its central bank to affect the price of the country’s currency on the exchange market.
General
I Business Terms
Intervention This can be done either through the government buying or selling large quantities of the currency to affect total supply, or by
the central bank changing interest rates to affect the cash flow into the country.
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General
I Business Terms
In-the-money Option An option that has value if exercised immediately.
General Entrepreneurial-based activities within a corporation that receive organizational support and resources commitments for the
I Business Terms
Intrapreneurship
purpose of an innovative new business experience within the organization itself.
General Intrinsic Value of an

I Business Terms Option
The value of an option if exercised immediately.
General
I Business Terms
Inventory Goods in stock, either finished goods or materials to be used to manufacture goods.
General Total cost of sales divided by inventory. Usually calculated using the average inventory over an accounting period, not an
I Business Terms
Inventory turnover
ending-inventory value.
General Inventory turnover (above). Total cost of sales divided by inventory. Usually calculated using the average inventory over an
I Business Terms
Inventory turns
accounting period, not an ending-inventory value.
General
I Business Terms
Investment Money used to purchase any capital items for the business and expected to yield an income.
General Investment An agreement specifying the rights and responsibilities of a host government and a corporation in the structure and operation
I Business Terms Agreement of an investment project
General Investment
I Business Terms Opportunity Set
The set of possible investments available to an individual or corporation.
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General Investment
I Business Terms Philosophy
The investment approach (active or passive) pursued by an investment fund and its managers.
Government regulations that do not directly restrict trade but have a hindering effect on through the use of excessive and
General Invisible Barriers to obscure requirements on goods before they can be sold, especially imported goods. While known to local business people,
I Business Terms Trade foreign investors are not aware of these conditions, making them “invisible.” Labeling requirements or other sorts of
measurement or sanitary standards would be an example of this.
General
I Business Terms
Invoice Document which shows the customer charges for goods delivered or work done.
General
J Business Terms
Jeito The way of somehow getting things done in Brazil; the jeito can help conquer seemingly insurmountable tasks (Portuguese).
General
J Business Terms
Jobber An intermediary that buys from producers to sell to retailers and offers various services with that function.
General An agreement of two or more companies to pool their resources to execute a well-defined mission. Resource commitments,
J Business Terms
Joint Venture
responsibilities, and earnings are shared according to a predetermined contractual formula.
General
J Business Terms
Jurisdiction The right of an authority to apply the law in a given territory.
General An organization-wide practice that keeps the inventory to the minimum and provides customers the right goods or service at
J Business Terms
Just-in-time (JIT)
the right time.
General
K Business Terms
Kanban System A Japanese just-in-time inventory system that makes use of cards to signal the need for more raw materials or supplies.
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General Collaborative groups of vertically and horizontally integrated firms with extensive share cross-holdings and with a major
K Business Terms
Keiretsu
Japanese bank or corporation at the center.
General A multilateral environmental agreement; its goal is to control global warming by reducing greenhouse gases emitted into the
K Business Terms
Kyoto Protocol
Earth's atmosphere.
General The labor costs associated with making goods to be sold. This labor is part of the cost of sales, part of the manufacturing and
L Business Terms
Labor
assembly. The row heading refers to fulfillment costs as well, for service companies.
General One type of adopter in Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations framework describing the risk adverse group that follows the
L Business Terms
Laggards
late majority that is generally not interested in new technology and are the last group of customers to buy.
General A term associated with the free enterprise economic system which calls for minimal government intervention or regulation,
L Business Terms
Laissez-faire
except in maintenance of this economic freedom.
General
L Business Terms
Landed Cost The quoted or invoiced cost of a commodity, plus any inbound transportation charges.
General The principle that equivalent assets sell for the same price. The law of one price is enforced in the currency markets by
L Business Terms
Law of One Price
financial market arbitrage. Also known as purchasing price parity (PPP).
General An arrangement where the customer in a retail store makes a deposit on an article and pays the amount owing in instalments,
L Business Terms
Lay-by
while the retailer stores the article until the last payment has been made.
General
L Business Terms
LDCs Least Developed Countries
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General
L Business Terms
Lead Manager The lead investment bank in a syndicate selling a public securities offering.
General
L Business Terms
Leading and Lagging Reduction of transaction exposure through timing of cash flows within the corporation.
General
L Business Terms
Lease A contract in which one party conveys the use of an asset to another party for a specific period of time at a predetermined rate.
General The periodic rental payment to a lessor for the use of assets. Others may define lease rate as the implicit interest rate in
L Business Terms
Lease Rate
minimum lease payments.
General A method of acquiring business equipment without capital outlay. the bank or finance company buys the equipment and leases
L Business Terms
Leasing finance
it to the customer, in return for regular rental payments for the duration of the lease period.
General Less than Truckload Refers to shipments of relatively small amounts of freight, typically between 100 and 10,000 pounds. It usually involves slower
L Business Terms (LTL) freight times than full truckload shipping.
General
L Business Terms
Lessee A person who enters into a lease contract as the user of the land, buildings, plant or equipment.
General Lesser Developed

L Business Terms Countries
This is a form of categorization in economic growth for the countries that are just beginning to industrialize.
General A letter issued by an importer’s bank guaranteeing payment upon presentation of specified trade documents (invoice, bill of
L Business Terms
Letter of Credit (L/C)
lading, inspection and insurance certificates, etc.).
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General A document describing the preliminary understanding between parties intending to join together in some sort of action or
L Business Terms
Letter of Intent
engage in a contract.
General Leveraged Buy-Out A type of purchase of a business that relies heavily on the venture’s cash receipts with expectations of positive cash flow
L Business Terms (LBO) continuing based on historical or other performance indicators.
General The lessor provides an equity portion (usually 20 to 40 percent) of the equipment cost and lenders provide the balance on a
L Business Terms
Leveraged Lease
nonrecourse debt basis.
General Debts; money that must be paid. Usually debt on terms of less than five years is called short-term liabilities, and debt for longer
L Business Terms
Liabilities
than five years in long-term liabilities.
General
L Business Terms
Liberalization The process by which certain business activities become more market driven.
General A sales agreement in which a domestic company (the licensor) allows a foreign company (the licensee) to market its products
L Business Terms
License Agreement
in a foreign country in return for royalties, fees, or other forms of compensation.
General One firm gives another firm a permission, which allows the latter to engage in an activity otherwise legally forbidden to it. Such
L Business Terms
Licensing
activities usually involve the transfer of intellectual and proprietary knowledge in return for royalty as revenue.
General A model depicting the sales volume cycle of a single product, brand, service or a class of products or services over time
L Business Terms
Life cycle
described in terms of the four phases of introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
General Limited (public) (Australia) A public Limited Company is one where the right to transfer shares and the number of members is not limited. In
L Business Terms company (AUS) addition, the company may invite the public to subscribe for its shares and, to deposit money with the company.
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Limited Flexibility
General
L Exchange Rate The International Monetary Fund’s name for an exchange rate system with a managed float.
Business Terms
System
The LLC form is different for different states, with some real advantages in some states that aren’t relevant in others. An LLC is
usually a lot like an S corporation, a combination of some limitatiuon on legal liability and some favorable tax treatment for
profits and transfer of assets. This is a newer form of legal entity, and often harder to establish than a corporation. Why would
General Limited Liability
L you establish an LLC instead of a corporation? That’s a tough legal question, not one we can answer here. In general, the LLC
Business Terms Company (LLC) has to be missing two of the four characteristics of a corporation (limited liability, centralized management, continuity of life,
and free transferability of ownership interest). Still, with the advisability and advantages varying from state to state, here again,
this is a question to take to a good local attorney with small business experience.
A form of business organization combining elements of partnerships and corporations, in which both managing and non-
Limited liability
General managing partners are protected from liability to some degree, and have a different tax liability than in a corporation. Although
L Business Terms
partnership (U.S.,
this form of business is available in the U.S., the UK, and Japan, legal details of forming and operating such a company vary
UK, Japan) from one country to another, and by state within the U.S.
General
L Business Terms
Limited partnership A legal partnership where some owners are allowed to assume responsibility only up to the amount invested.
General
L Business Terms
Liquid Market A market in which traders can buy or sell large quantities of an asset when they want and with low transactions costs.
General
L Business Terms
Liquidate To settle a debt or to convert to cash. This literally means to do away with.
General a qualified person appointed by a court to close down a business that is a proprietary company and realise and distribute its
L Business Terms
Liquidator
assets in payment of its liabilities.
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General
L Business Terms
Liquidity The ease with which an asset can be exchanged for another asset of equal value.
General
L Business Terms
Liquidity ratio A comparison of two accounts in a Balance Sheet, current assets divided by current liabilities.
General Money lent at interest. A lender makes a "loan" with the idea that it will be paid back as agreed and that interest will be paid for
L Business Terms
Loan
the use of the money.
General
L Business Terms
Loanable funds The pool of funds from which borrowers can attract capital; typically categorized by currency and maturity.
General Location-specific
L Business Terms advantages
Advantages (natural and created) that are available only or primarily in a single location.
General
L Lombard Rate The rate of interest changed by the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, to loans backed by moveable, easily-sold assets.
Business Terms
General London Interbank The offer rate that a Euromarket bank demands in order to place a deposit at or make a loan to another Euromarket bank in
L Business Terms Offer Rate (LIBOR) London.
General
L Business Terms
Long Position A position in which a particular asset (such as a spot or forward currency) has been purchased.
General
L Business Terms
Long-term assets Assets like plant and equipment that are depreciated over terms of more than five years, and are likely to last that long, too.
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General Long-term interest

L Business Terms rate
The interest rate charged on long-term debt.
General
L Business Terms
Long-term liabilities This is the same as long-term loans. Most companies call a debt long-term when it is on terms of five years or more.
Loss is an accounting concept, the exact opposite of profit, normally the bottom line of the Income Statement, which is also
General
L Business Terms
Loss called Profit or Loss statement. Start with sales, subtract all costs of sales and all expenses, and that produces profit before
tax. Subtract tax to get net profit. If the end result is negative, then instead of profit it is called loss.
General Loss of profits Insurance to cover loss of profits incurred by the policyholder in the event of some calamity overtaking the policyholder’s
L Business Terms insurance business, so that trading has to cease.
General Activities designed to encourage repeat purchasing through a formal program enrollment process and the distribution of
L Business Terms
Loyalty programs
benefits. Loyalty programs may also be referred to as frequency marketing.
The fallacious argument which, working on the assumption that there is only a fixed amount of work in the world, says that an
General Lump of Labor
L Business Terms Fallacy
increasing population will inevitably lead to increasing unemployment. This argument is often used by governments as
reasoning behind reducing the workweek to reduce unemployment.
The treaty, formally known as the Treaty on European Union, signed in 1992, that led to the unification of many European
General countries. The treaty changed the name of the European Community (EC) to the European Union (EU) and led to the creation
M Business Terms
Maastricht Treaty
of a monetary union with a European Central bank, political and military integration, common foreign policy, and common
citizenship among member countries.
General
M Business Terms
Macro Country Risks Country (or political) risks that affect all foreign firms in a host country.
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General
M Business Terms
Management The role of conducting and supervising a business.
General Management An agreement by which one firm allows another to manage its foreign activities on behalf of it. The managing firm is forbidden
M Business Terms Contract to make capital investment or financing decisions.
General
M Business Terms
Managerial Flexibility Flexibility in the timing and scale of investment provided by a real investment option.
General Document that lists in detail al the bills of lading issued by a carrier of its agent or master (i.e. a detailed summary of the total
M Business Terms
Manifest
cargo of a vessel).
General An agent who typically operates on an extended contractual basis, often sells in an exclusive territory, offers non-competing
M Manufacturer’s agent
Business Terms but related lines of goods, and has defined authority regarding prices and terms of sale.
General
M Business Terms
Maquiladoras Duty-free assembly plants located mainly in the developing world. Maquiladoras are one type of foreign direct investment.
General The difference between the selling price and the purchase price of an item usually expressed as a percentage of the selling
M Business Terms
Margin
price. Compare mark-up.
General An account maintained by an investor with a brokerage firm in which securities may be purchased by borrowing a portion of the
M Business Terms
Margin Account
purchase price from the brokerage, or may be sold short by borrowing the securities from the brokerage firm.
General
M Business Terms
Margin Requirement A performance bond paid upon purchase of a futures contract that ensures the exchange clearinghouse against loss.
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General
M Market Prospective buyers, individuals or organizations, willing and able to purchase the organization’s potential offering.
Business Terms
General The extent to which a domestic industry can penetrate a related market in a foreign country. Access can be limited by tariffs or
M Business Terms
Market Access
other non-trade barriers.
General Market development The monetary resources a company invests to assist channel members increase volume sales of their products or services.
M Business Terms funds Hereafter referred to by the acronym MDF.
General Market development A product-market strategy whereby an organization introduces its offerings to markets other than those it is currently serving.
M Business Terms strategy In global marketing, this strategy can be implemented through exportation licensing, join ventures or direct investment.
General
M Business Terms
Market Economy An economy in which resource allocations, prices and other marketing decisions are primarily determined by the free market.
General
M Business Terms
Market evolution Changes in primary demand for a product class and changes in technology.
General A failure of arms-length markets to efficiently complete the production of a good or service. In the eclectic paradigm, the
M Business Terms
Market Failure
multinational corporation’s market internalization advantages take advantage of market failure.
General Market Internalization Advantages that allow the multinational corporation to internalize or exploit the failure of an arms-length market to efficiently
M Business Terms Advantages accomplish a task.
General
M Business Terms
Market Maker A financial institution that quotes bid (buy) and offer (sell) prices.
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General
M Business Terms
Market Model Also known as the one-factor market model. The empirical version of the security market line: Rj = aj + bjRM + ej.
General Market penetration A product market strategy hereby an organization seeks to gain greater dominance in a market in which it already has an
M Business Terms strategy offering. This strategy often focuses on capturing a larger share of an existing market.
Market plan: its

General Often found within the business plan, the market plan provides details regarding the overall marketing strategy, pricing, sales
M Business Terms
purpose and
tactics, service and warranty policies, advertising and promotion and distribution plans for the venture.
components
General
M Business Terms
Market Portfolio A portfolio of all assets weighted according to their market values.
General
M Business Terms
Market redefinition Changes in the offering demanded by buyers or promoted by competitors to enhance its perception and associated sales.
General
M Business Terms
Market Risk Premium The risk premium on an average stock; (E[RM]-RF).
General
M Business Terms
Market sales potential The maximum level of sales that might be available to all organizations serving a defined market in a specific time period.
General The categorization of potential buyers into groups based on common characteristics such as age, gender, income, and
M Business Terms
Market segmentation
geography or other attributes relating to purchase or consumption behavior.
General
M Business Terms
Market share Total sales of an organization divided by the sales of the market they serve.
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General An investment strategy of shifting among asset classes in an attempt to anticipate which asset class(es) will appreciate or
M Business Terms
Market Timing
depreciate during the coming period.
Market-based
General
M Business Terms
Corporate A system of corporate governance in which the supervisory board represents a dispersed set of largely equity shareholders.
Governance System
General The set of planned activities designed to positively influence the perceptions and purchase choices of individuals and
M Business Terms
Marketing
organizations.
A comprehensive and systematic examination of a company’s or business unit’s marketing environment, objectives, strategies,
General
M Business Terms
Marketing audit and activities with a view of identifying and understanding problem areas and opportunities, and recommending a plan of
action.
General Marketing cost Assigning or allocating costs to a specified marketing activity or entity in a manner that accurately captures the financial
M Business Terms analysis contribution of activities or entities to the organization.
General The set of marketing tools that the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market. One of the most popular
M Business Terms
Marketing Mix
classifications of marketing mix tools is called the
General A written document containing description and guidelines for an organization’s or a product’s marketing strategies, tactics and
M Business Terms
Marketing plan
programs for offering their products and services over the defined planning period, often one year.
General A business’ approach to marketing its products/ services expresses in broad terms, which forms the basis for developing a
M Business Terms
Marketing strategy
marketing plan.
General Marketing-cost Assigning or allocating costs to a specified marketing activity or entity in a manner that accurately captures the financial
M Business Terms analysis contribution of activities or entities to the organization.
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General
M Business Terms
Marking to Market The process by which changes in the value of futures contracts are settled daily.
General The price increase between buying at wholesale and selling at retail often expressed as a percentage of the wholesale or cost
M Business Terms
Mark-up
price. Compare margin.
A service organized by the United States International Trade Administration, this program aids firms that are new to exporting
General
M Business Terms
Matchmaker Program or new to the market to meet prescreened business prospects in foreign markets who are interested in their products or
services.
General
M Business Terms
Materials Included in the cost of sales. These are materials involved in the assembly or manufacture of goods for sale.
General
M Business Terms
Maturity Date The date on which the last payment on a bond is due.
General Mean-variance
M Business Terms Efficient
An asset that has higher mean return at a given level of risk (or lower risk at a given level of return) than other assets.
A legal document that lays down the objects of a registered company and details of the regulation of the company’s business
General Memorandum of
M Business Terms association
dealings. It is one of the two fundamental documents upon which registration of any company is based. See articles of
association.
General
M Business Terms
Merchandising Trading in a range of goods. Promoting the whole range of goods that are sold in a business.
The “common market of the South,” a customs union which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela in a
General
M Business Terms
MERCOSUR regional trade pact that reduces tariffs on intrapact trade by up to 90 percent. Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are
associate members.
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General
M Business Terms
Merger A form of corporate acquisition in which one firm absorbs another and the assets and liabilities of the two firms are combined.
General
M Business Terms
Method of Payment The way in which a merger or acquisition is financed.
General
M Business Terms
Micro Country Risks Country risks that are specific to an industry, company, or project within a host country.
General Small loans, perhaps $50 or $100, that are extended to small businesses to finance a business start-up or other business
M Business Terms
Microcredit
activity.
General A market segment generally represented by financing under $2 million. In leasing this sector is dominated by single investor
M Business Terms
Middle Market
leases.
Miller and
General Modigliani’s
M Business Terms Irrelevance
If financial markets are perfect, then corporate financial policy (including hedging policy) is irrelevant.
Proposition
General
M Mission statement A statement that captures an organization’s purpose, customer orientation and business philosophy.
Business Terms
General
M Business Terms
Mixed Tariff A combination of specific and ad valorem tariffs.
General Monetary Assets and

M Business Terms Liabilities
Assets and liabilities with contractual payoffs.
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General
M Business Terms
Money Market Hedge A hedge that replicates a currency forward contract through the spot currency and Eurocurrency markets.
General
M Business Terms
Money Market Yield A bond quotation convention based on a 360-day year and semiannual coupons (contrast with bond equivalent yield).
General
M Business Terms
Money Markets Financial markets for debt securities that pay off in the short term (usually less than one year).
General
M Business Terms
Money Supply The total amount of currency in circulation and peso deposits subject to check of the monetary system.
General
M Business Terms
Monopoly Exclusive control or possession by one group of the means of producing or selling goods or services.
More Flexible
General
M Exchange Rate The International Monetary Fund’s name for a floating exchange rate system.
Business Terms
System
General
M Business Terms
Mortgagee the organisation or person to whom the property is mortgaged. In the case of a bank loan, the organisation is usually the bank.
General
M Business Terms
Mortgagor A person who mortgages a property.
General Most Favored Nation A status granted to one country by another; the granting country then accords the recipient's imports and exports the most
M Business Terms (MFN) favorable treatment that it accords any country.
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Moving weighted average is a statistical method to forecast the future based on past results. It is a subset of time series
General Moving weighted
M Business Terms average
analysis. Detailed explanation goes beyond the scope of a glossary of terms, but should be included in any text on forecasting,
statistics, or business forecasting.
Multilateral
General
M Business Terms
Environmntal Environmental agreements negotiated by a number of countries.
Agreements (MEAs)
Multilateral
General Investment One of the five institutions comprising the World Bank Group; MIGA’s purpose is to help encourage equity investment and
M Business Terms Guarantee Agency other kids of direct investment flow into developing countries.
(MIGA)
General Multinational
M Business Terms Corporation (MNC)
A corporation with operations in more than one country.
General
M Business Terms
Multinational Netting Elimination of offsetting cash flows within the multinational corporation.
General Multiple-channel A channel of distribution that uses a combination of direct and indirect channels where the channel members serve different
M Business Terms system segments.
General Mutually Exclusive

M Business Terms Investment Decisions
Investment decisions in which the acceptance of a project precludes the acceptance of one or more alternative projects.
General
N Business Terms
National Tax Policy The way in which a nation chooses to allocate the burdens of tax collections across its residents.
General
N Business Terms
National Treatment A country accords no less favorable treatment to imported goods than it does to domestic goods.
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General
N Business Terms
Nationalization A process whereby privately owned companies are brought under state ownership and control (contrast with privatization).
General Theory in economics that certain countries have a competitive advantage in certain products due to their access to specific
N Business Terms
Natural Advantage
natural resources, their climactic conditions, or their transportation system.
General Is when an investment is purchased with the assistance of borrowed funds and where the income from that investment (after
N Business Terms
Negative gearing
the deduction of expenses) is less than the interest commitment in the course of a year
General Negative-NPV Tie-in A negative net present value infrastructure development project that a local government requires of a company pursuing a
N Business Terms Project positive-NPV investment project elsewhere in the economy.
General
N Business Terms
Net What is left after deducting all charges (see gross).
General Net Asset Value The sum of the individual asset values in a closed-end mutual fund. Closed-end funds can sell at substantial premiums or
N Business Terms (NAV) discounts to their net asset values.
General
N Business Terms
Net cash flow This is the projected change in cash position, an increase or decrease in cash balance.
General Net Currency

N Business Terms Exposure
Exposure to foreign exchange risk after netting all intracompany cash flows.
General
N Business Terms
Net Exposed Assets Exposed assets less exposed liabilities. The term is used with market values or, in translation accounting, with book values.
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General
N Business Terms
Net Monetary Assets Monetary assets less monetary liabilities.
General
N Business Terms
Net Position A currency position after aggregating and canceling all offsetting transactions in each currency, maturity, and security.
The method of discounting future streams of income using an expected rate of return to evaluate the current value of expected
General Net Present Value
N earnings. It calculates future value in today’s dollars. NPV may be used to determine the current value of a business being
Business Terms (NPV) offered for sale or capitalized.
General
N Business Terms
Net profit The operating income less taxes and interest. The same as earnings, or net income.
General Net profit margin The remainder after cost of goods sold, other variable costs revenue, or simply, total revenue minus total cost. Net profit
N Business Terms before taxes margin can be expressed in actual monetary values or percentage terms.
General
N Business Terms
Net Working Capital Current assets minus current liabilities.
General This is the same as assets minus liabilities, and the same as total equity. Other short-term assets These might be securities,
N Business Terms
Net worth
business equipment, etc.
General
N Business Terms
New Protectionism Recent efforts to pressure national governments to exercise greater control over foreign trade and foreign direct investment.
General
N Business Terms
New visitors In online marketing, a website visitor who has not made any previous visits to the site or page in question.
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General The development of a new brand and often a new offering for a product class that has not been previously served by the
N Business Terms
New-brand strategy
organizations.
General Newly Industrializing

N Business Terms Countries (NIC)
A group of former LDC countries who, due to high levels of economic growth, have grown rapidly in recent years.
General Newsletter In online marketing, a conversion value measuring the number of users who voluntarily include themselves in your database
N Business Terms subscriptions and are willing to accept unsolicited email from you.
The name of the circumstances of a company that either engages in export activities for the first time, engages in exportation
General
N Business Terms
New-to-export (NTE) for first time in twenty-four months, or has only exported to because of prior unsolicited orders. Export assistance is available to
companies with this classification.
The name of the circumstances under which a company exports to a foreign market in which it has either never exported to,
General
N Business Terms
New-to-market (NTM) has not exported to for the past twenty-four months, or has only exported to because of prior unsolicited orders. Assistance is
available to companies with this classification.
General
N Business Terms
Niche A small specialised segment of a total market.
General
N Business Terms
Nominal Cash Flow A cash flow expressed in nominal terms if the actual dollars to be received (or paid out) are given.
General
N Business Terms
Nominal Interest Rate Interest rate unadjusted for inflation.
General
N Business Terms
Noncash Item Expense against revenue that does not directly affect cash flow, such as depreciation and deferred taxes.
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Non-governmental
General
N Business Terms
Organizations Special interest groups that operate in the global community.
(NGOs)
General Nonintermediated A financial market in which borrowers (governments and large corporations) appeal directly to savers for debt capital through
N Business Terms Debt Market the securities markets without using a financial institution as intermediary.
General An economy in which the government, through the use of central planning, makes most economic decisions to control
N Business Terms
Non-market Economy
economic activity.
General Nonmonetary Assets

N Business Terms and Liabilities
Assets and liabilities with noncontractual payoffs.
General An indirect measure used to discriminate against foreign manufacturers, for example, extensive inspection procedures for
N Business Terms
Non-tariff Barrier
foreign imports that create barriers to entering the market.
A regional alliance established in 1952 between Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland that is dedicated to
General
N Business Terms
Nordic Council cooperation among the Nordic countries. This has led to a common labor market, social security, and free movement of
citizens across borders.
General
N Business Terms
Normal Distribution Symmetric bell-shaped frequency distribution that can be defined by its mean and standard deviation.
General Normal Trade New name for Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status, in which the country which grants this status accords the recipient's
N Business Terms Relations (NTR) imports and exports the most favorable treatment that it accords any country.
North American Free

General
N Business Terms
Trade Agreement NAFTA is a regional trade pact among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
(NAFTA)
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General
N Business Terms
North-south Trade A name for trade between developed (northern) and less developed countries (southern).
General Not Invented Here A negative response to innovations and inventions from sources outside the venture’s own research and development
N Business Terms (NIH) activities.
General
N Business Terms
Not negotiable Words often written on crossed cheques, which do not prevent the cheque from being transferred. See account payee only.
General
N Notional Principal In a swap agreement, a principal amount that is only “notional” and is not exchanged.
Business Terms
General Business costs or expenses that need to be paid, but wait for a time as Accounts payable (Bills to be paid as part of the normal
O Business Terms
Obligations incurred
course of business) instead of being paid immediately.
General
O Business Terms
Offer Rates The rate at which a market maker is willing to sell the quoted asset. Also known as ask rates.
The total benefits or satisfaction provided to target markets by an organization. An offering consists of a tangible product or
General
O Business Terms
Offering service plus related services such as installation, repair, warranties or guarantees, packaging, technical support, field support,
and other services.
General Offering mix or

O The complete array of an organization’s offerings including all products and services.
Business Terms portfolio
General In the United States, a shortened registration statement required by the Securities and Exchange Commission on debt issues
O Business Terms
Offering Statement
with less than a 9-month maturity.
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General
O Business Terms
Official receiver A person appointed to investigate and manage the affairs of a company in receivership
General Official Settlements An overall measure of a country’s private financial and economic transactions with the rest of the world. Also known as overall
O Business Terms Balance balance.
General Offshore Financial

O Business Terms Centers (OFCs)
The many types of financial institutions that operate without financial supervision by governments or other agencies.
General
O Business Terms
Oligopoly A market dominated by so few sellers that action by any of them will impact both the price of the good and the competitors.
General (Australia): Labor costs in addition to salaries and wages; that is, payroll tax, workers’ compensation and other liability
O Business Terms
On-costs
insurance, the cost of subsidized services to employees, training costs, etc.
General
O Business Terms
Open Account The seller delivers the goods to the buyer and then bills the buyer according to the terms of trade.
An economic policy enacted by the Chinese government combining central planning with market-oriented reforms to increase
General Open and Reform
O Business Terms Policy
productivity, living standards, and technological quality without exacerbating inflation, unemployment, and budget deficits, with
the goal of moving from a centrally-planned economy to a market-based one.
General
O Business Terms
Open-end Fund A mutual fund in which the amount of money under management grows/shrinks as investors buy/sell the fund.
General Earnings before interest and depreciation minus taxes. It measures the cash flow generated from operations, not counting
O Business Terms
Operating Cash Flow
capital spending or working capital requirements.
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General Expenses incurred in conducting normal business operations. Operating expenses may include wages, salaries, administrative
O Business Terms
Operating expenses
and research and development costs, but excludes interest, depreciation, and taxes.
General
O Business Terms
Operating Exposure Changes in the value of real (nonmonetary) assets or operating cash flows as a result of changes in currency values.
General
O Business Terms
Operating Leverage The trade-off between fixed and variable costs in the operation of the firm.
General Market efficiency with respect to how large an influence transactions costs and other market frictions have on the operation of
O Business Terms
Operational Efficiency
a market.
General
O Business Terms
Operations control The practice of assessing how well an organization performs marketing activities as it seeks to achieve planned outcomes.
General Opportunities vs. Ideas are the basis of potential business opportunities. Good ideas do not necessarily represent good opportunities (that is,
O Business Terms ideas actual business opportunities).
General The process of identifying and exploring revenue enhancement or expense reduction situations to better position the
O Business Terms
Opportunity analysis
organization to realize increased profitability, efficiencies, market potential or other desirable objectives.
General Resource use options that are given up as a consequence of pursuing one activity among several possibilities. Potential
O Business Terms
Opportunity cost
benefits foregone as a result of choosing an alternative course of action.
General
O Business Terms
Opportunity Set The set of all possible investments.
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an agreement, often for a consideration, which permits the purchase or sale of something within a stipulated time, in
General
O Business Terms
Option accordance with the terms of the agreement. For example, a right by a tenant to take up a further lease of premises, usually
under conditions outlined in the original lease.
General Orderly Marketing Agreements between two or more governments to hold back the growth of trade for certain products by limiting exports and
O Business Terms Agreements imposing import quotas.
Organization for
General Economic
O Business Terms Cooperation and
A group of 30 countries that meets regularly to discuss global issues and make appropriate economic and social policies.
Development (OECD)
Organization of
General A regional organization created in 1948 promoting the economic and social development of Latin America. Members include
O Business Terms
American States
the U.S., Mexico, most of South and Central America, and most of the Caribbean nations.
(OAS)
Organization of
General
O Business Terms
Petroleum Exporting A producer cartel that produces and sells oil.
Countries (OPEC)
The process that is facilitated through licensing or other financial arrangements where the initial producer of a product or
service enters into an agreement to allow another entity to include, remanufacture, or label products or services under their
General Original Equipment
O own name and sell through their distribution channels. It typically results in a “higher volume, lower margin” relationship for the
Business Terms Manufacturer (OEM) original producer, and offers access to a broader range of products and services the buyer can offer their consumers at more
attractive costs.
General These are short-term debts that don’t cause interest expenses. For example, they might be loans from founders or accrued
O Business Terms
Other ST liabilities
taxes (taxes owed, already incurred, but not yet paid).
General Out-of-the-money
O Business Terms option
An option that has no value if exercised immediately.
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General
O Business Terms
Outright Quote A quote in which all of the digits of the bid and offer prices are quoted (contrast with points quote).
General
O Business Terms
Outsourcing A situation in which a firm's functions are performed or provided by a person or group from outside the company.
General
O Business Terms
Outward Swap Purchasing foreign currency today and reselling it at a forward rate against the domestic currency.
General Overall FTC In the U.S. tax code, a limitation on the FTC equal to foreign-source income times U.S. tax on worldwide income divided by
O Business Terms Limitation worldwide income.
General A form of loan by which a person with a trading bank current account is given permission to continue making drawings on the
O Business Terms
Overdraft
account up to an agreed limit, after the balance has been reduced to nil.
General Expenses which are incurred in producing a commodity or rendering a service, but which cannot conveniently be attributed to
O Business Terms
Overhead
individual units of production or service. Examples are heating, lighting etc.
Overseas Private
General A US agency that assists US companies protect their investment against risk in a particular country besides providing other
O Business Terms
Investment
services.
Corporation (OPIC)
Property rights or intangible assets, including patents, trademarks, organizational and marketing expertise, production
General Ownership-specific
O technology and management, and general organizational abilities, that form the basis for the multinational’s advantage over
Business Terms Advantages local firms.
General
P Business Terms
Packing List Document listing the contents of a consignment of goods. May be called for on a letter of credit.
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In online marketing, a request for a file whose type is defined as a page in log analysis. This is generally what people mean
General when they talk about Web page “hits,” but is a more accurate way of tracking this metric because of the way log analysis
P Business Terms
Page views
works. A single page view (one visitor looking at one page) may generate multiple “hits” in log analysis, as all the resources
required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the Web server.
General Real money paid into the company as investments. This is not to be confused with par value of stock, or market value of stock.
P Business Terms
Paid-in capital
This is actual money paid into the company as equity investments by owners.
General
P Business Terms
Paid-up-capital The total capital of a company. It comprises both shares issued for cash or for acquisition of assets and bonus shares.
General A loan arrangement in which a company borrows in its home currency and then trades this debt for the foreign currency debt of
P Business Terms
Parallel Loan
a foreign counterpart.
General Form of business organization in which two or more co-owners form a business. In a general partnership each partner is liable
P Business Terms
Partnership
for the debts of the partnership. Limited partnership permits some partners to have limited liability.
General
P Business Terms
Passive Income In the U.S. tax code, income (such as investment income) that does not come from active participation in a business.
General
P Business Terms
Patent A government grant that gives inventors exclusive right of making, using, or selling the invention.
General Pay As You Go are the amounts you pay directly to the Commissioner of Taxation to meet your income tax and other liabilities and are usually
P Business Terms (PAYG) instalments paid each quarter.
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Short for Account Payables; Bills to be paid as part of the normal course of business. This is a standard accounting term, one
General
P Business Terms
Payables of the most common liabilities, which normally appears in the Balance Sheet listing of liabilities. Businesses receive goods or
services from a supplier, receive an invoice, and until that invoice is paid the amount is recorded as part of “Accounts Payable.”
General The number of years required for an organization to recapture an initial investment. This may apply to an entire business
P Business Terms
Payback period
operation or an individual project.
An investment decision rule which states that all investment projects that have payback periods equal to or less than a
General particular cutoff period are accepted, and all those that pay off in more than the particular cutoff period are rejected. The
P Business Terms
Payback Period Rule
payback period is the number of years required for a firm to recover its initial investment required by a project from the cash
flow it generates.
General
P Business Terms
Payee Person to whom money is paid
General The average number of days that pass between receiving an invoice and paying it. It is not a simple estimate; it is calculated
P Business Terms
Payment days
with a financial formula: =(Accounts_payable_balance*360)/(Total entries to accounts payable*12)
General
P Business Terms
Payment delay The number of days on average a business waits between receiving a bill and paying a bill. Also called payment days.
General A graph with the value of an underlying asset on the x-axis and the value of a position taken to hedge against risk exposure on
P Business Terms
Payoff Profile
the y-axis. Also used with changes in value (contrast with risk profile).
General
P Business Terms
Payout Ratio Proportion of net income paid out in cash dividends.
General
P Business Terms
Payroll Wages, salaries, employee compensation.
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Payroll burden includes payroll taxes and benefits. It is calculated using a percentage assumption that is applied to payroll. For
General
P Business Terms
Payroll burden example, if payroll is $1,000 and the burden rate is 10 percent, the burden is an extra $100. Acceptable payroll burden rates
vary by market, by industry, and by company.
General Pegged Exchange

P The International Monetary Fund’s name for a fixed exchange rate system.
Business Terms Rate System
General Penetration pricing

P Business Terms strategy
Setting a relatively low initial price for a new product or service.
General A recognition of future liabilities resulting from pension commitments made by the corporation. Accounting for pension liabilities
P Business Terms
Pension Liabilities
varies widely by country.
General The extent to which a customer or client is uncertain about the consequences of an action, often relating to purchase
P Business Terms
Perceived risk
decisions.
General A two or three-dimensional illustration of customer’s perceptions of competing products comparing select attributes based on
P Business Terms
Perceptual map
market research.
General Perfect Market A set of assumptions under which the law of one price holds. These assumptions include frictionless markets, rational
P Business Terms Assumptions investors, and equal access to market prices and information.
General
P Business Terms
Peril Point The limit beyond which the reduction of tariff protection in a given industry would cause it serious injury.
General
P Business Terms
Periodic Call Auction A trading system in which stocks are auctioned at intervals throughout the day.
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General
P Business Terms
Perpetuity A constant stream of cash flows without end. A British consol is an example.
the money you have in the bank, whatever is owed to you, any securities (shares) that you own, the property you own,
General
P Business Terms
Personal assets whatever part of your home that you own, your furniture and appliances and all the miscellaneous things that you personally
own.
General
P Business Terms
Personal selling The use of face-to-face communication between the seller and buyer.
General
P Business Terms
Personnel Persons collectively in the employ of a business.
General
P Business Terms
Petty cash A small amount of money kept for minor purchases for the business, which do not warrant writing a cheque.
General Phytosanitary A piece of legislation, regulation, or procedure with the purpose of preventing the introduction or spread of pests. Phytosanitary
P Business Terms Measure procedures often include the performance of inspections, tests, surveillance, or other treatments.
General This is the same as long-term, fixed, or capital assets. These are generally assets that are depreciated over terms of more
P Business Terms
Plant and equipment
than five years, and are likely to last that long, too.
General Point of Purchase

P Business Terms (POP) advertising
A retail in-store presentation that displays product and communicates information to retail consumers at the place of purchase.
General
P Business Terms
Points Quote An abbreviated form of the outright quote used by traders in the interbank market.
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General The risk that a sovereign host government will unexpectedly change the rules of the game under which businesses operate.
P Business Terms
Political Risk
Political risk includes both macro and micro risks.
Political, Economic,
General PEST is a popular framework for situation analysis, looking at political, economic, and social trends. Analyzing these factors
P Business Terms
and Social Trends
can help generate marketing ideas, product ideas, etc.
(PEST) analysis
General In logistics, pooling is when a group of carriers agree to share freight, customers, and revenues or profits. In the U.S. it is
P Business Terms
Pooling
outlawed by the Interstate Commerce Act.
General
P Business Terms
Portfolio Combined holding of more than one stock, bond, real estate asset, or other asset by an investor.
Orchestrating an organization’s offering and image to occupy a unique and valued place in the customer’s mind relative to
General
P Business Terms
Positioning competitive offerings. A product or service can be positioned on the basis of an attribute or benefit, use or application, user,
class, price, or quality.
General
P Business Terms
Posting Making entries in an account system or book from original documents such as invoices and receipts.
General
P Business Terms
Power Distance The extent to which a society accepts hierarchical differences.
General
P Business Terms
Power of attorney Power to act on behalf of another person for specified purposes.
General It is a form of price discrimination that requires selling below cost with the intention of destroying competition. However,
P Business Terms
Predatory Pricing
predatory pricing is against the law.
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General
P Business Terms
Premium If a bond is selling above its face value, it is said to sell at a premium.
General
P Business Terms
Present Value The value of a future cash stream discounted at the appropriate market interest rate.
General Present Value Factor

P Business Terms (PVF)
Factor used to calculate an estimate of the present value of an amount to be received in a future period.
General Price Elasticity of

P Business Terms Demand
The sensitivity of quantity sold to a percentage change in price; -%changeQ/%changeP.
General
P Business Terms
Price Uncertainty Uncertainty regarding the future price of an asset.
General
P Business Terms
Principal In the case of a loan, refers to the actual amount borrowed and on which interest is paid.
General
P Business Terms
Private Placement A securities issue privately placed with a small group of investors rather than through a public offering.
General 1) A company whose shares are not publicly traded on a stock market. Such companies usually have less restrictive reporting
P Business Terms
Privately owned
requirements than publicly traded companies. 2) A company which is not owned by the government (state owned).
General
P Business Terms
Privatization A process whereby publicly owned enterprises are sold to private investors (contrast with nationalization).
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General Pro forma income A projected Income Statement. Pro forma in this context means projected. An income statement is the same as a profit and
P Business Terms statement loss statement, a financial statement that shows sales, cost of sales, gross margin, operating expenses, and profits.
General An invoice provided by a supplier prior to the shipment of merchandise, informing the buyer of the kinds and quantities of
P Business Terms
Pro Forma Invoice
goods to be sent, their value, and important specifications.
General Financial statements that project the results of future business operations. Examples include a pro forma balance sheet, a pro
P Business Terms
Pro forma statements
forma income statement, and a pro forma cash flow statement.
General
P Business Terms
Pro rata In proportion.
General Product cycle theory views the products of the successful firm as evolving through 4 stages: (1) infancy, (2) growth, (3)
P Business Terms
Product Cycle Theory
maturity, and (4) decline.
General A stage in a new product development process in which concepts are translated into actual products for additional testing
P Business Terms
Product definition
based on interactions with customers.
General Expenses incurred in development of new products (salaries, laboratory equipment, test equipment, prototypes, research and
P Business Terms
Product development
development, etc.).
General Product development A product-market strategy whereby an organization creates new offerings for existing markets innovation, product
P Business Terms strategy augmentation, or product line extensions.
The phases of the sales projections or history of a product or service category over time used to assist with marketing mix
General Product Life Cycle
P Business Terms (PLC)
decisions and strategic options available. The four stages of the product life cycle include introduction, growth, maturity, and
decline, and typically follow a predictable pattern based on sales volume over a period of time.
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General
P Business Terms
Product line A group of closely related products with similar attributes or target markets.
General Production
P Business Terms Possibilities Schedule
The maximum amount of goods (for example, food and clothing) that a country is able to produce given its labor supply.
General Production sharing occurs when a producer chooses to make a product in stages - and in different countries - so that the firm
P Business Terms
Production Sharing
can employ the lowest-cost resources in the production process.
General The setting of prices for all items in a product line involving the lowest-priced product price, the highest price product, and price
P Business Terms
Product-line pricing
differentials for all other products in the line.
Profit is an accounting concept, normally the bottom l;ine of the Income Statement, which is also called Profit or Loss
General
P Business Terms
Profit statement. Start with sales, subtract all costs of sales and all expenses, and that produces profit before tax. Subtract tax to get
net profit.
General Profit and loss

P Business Terms statement
Statement of revenue and expenses showing the profit or loss for a certain period of time.
General Profit before interest

P Business Terms and taxes
This is also called EBIT, for Earnings Before Interest and Taxes. It is gross margin minus operating expenses.
General
P Business Terms
Profit margin The amount that the price of a product or service is raised above its cost in order to provide a gross profit.
General A method used to evaluate projects. It is the ratio of the present value of expected future cash flows after initial investment
P Business Terms
Profitability Index
divided by the amount of the initial investment.
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General A document giving all the details of a proposed transaction, but not committing either the sender or recipient until the recipient
P Business Terms
Pro-forma invoice
pays the sender the amount shown. Commonly used by wholesalers for the first transaction with new customers.
General
P Business Terms
Progressive Taxation A convex tax schedule that results in a higher effective tax rate on high income levels than on low-income levels.
General A way to raise nonrecourse financing for a specific project characterized by the following: (1) the project is a separate legal
P Business Terms
Project Financing
entity and relies heavily on debt financing and (2) the debt is contractually linked to the cash flow generated by the project.
General
P Business Terms
Projection A forecast of future trends in the operation of a business.
General
P Business Terms
Promissory Note Financial document in which the buyer agrees to make payment to the seller at a specified time.
General
P Promotion A means of increasing the public’s or industry’s awareness of a business and its services or goods.
Business Terms
Proprietary (private) (Australia): A Proprietary Limited Company is a private company, in which the right to transfer shares is restricted and the
General
P Business Terms
limited company - pty number of members is limited to no more than fifty. In addition, the company is prohibited from inviting the public to subscribe
limited for its shares and, from inviting the public to deposit money with the company.
A business which is owned by not less than two persons and not more than 50 persons and which restricts the right of the
General
P Business Terms
Proprietary company shareholders to transfer shares. Such a business is a separate legal entity and must use the words Proprietary Limited (Pty
Ltd) after it name.
General Proprietary
P Business Terms Knowledge
Private or exclusive knowledge that cannot be legally used or duplicated by competitors.
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General
P Proprietorship The value of the proprietor’s assets in a business less any external liabilities.
Business Terms
General
P Prospectus A brochure that describes a mutual fund’s investment objectives, strategies, and position limits.
Business Terms
General
P Business Terms
Protectionism Protection of local industries through tariffs, quotas, and regulations that discriminate against foreign businesses.
General The similarities or lack thereof between country markets. This concept takes into account geographic distance, cultural
P Business Terms
Psychic Distance
similarities, linguistic aspects, legal systems and methods of conducting business.
General
P Business Terms
Public Relations (PR) A variety of programs designed to promote and/or protect a company's image or its individual products.
General Public Securities

P Business Terms Offering
A securities issue placed with the public through an investment or commercial bank.
General
P Business Terms
Publicly traded A company owned by shareholders who are members of the general public and trade shares publicly, as on the stock market.
General Pull communication The practice of creating interest among potential buyers, who then demand the offering from intermediaries, ultimately “pulling”
P Business Terms strategy the offering through the channel.
In logistics, it is a strategy which uses actual customer demand to determine production and distribution schedules. In
General
P Pull Strategy marketing, it is using intensive advertising to create customer demand for a product. In either case, the product is “pulled”
Business Terms through the system by the consumer.
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General
P Business Terms
Purchasing Agent Someone who buys goods in his or her country on behalf of foreign buyers.
General Purchasing Power The principle that equivalent assets sell for the same price. Purchasing power parity is a measurement of a currency's value
P Business Terms Parity (PPP) based on the buying power within its own domestic economy.
General Bonds that pay no coupons and only pay back the face value at maturity. Also referred to as zero-coupon bond or a single-
P Business Terms
Pure Discount Bond
payment bond.
The practice of “pushing” an offering through a marketing channel in a sequential fashion, with each channel focusing on a
General Push communication
P Business Terms strategy
distinct target market. The principal emphasis is on personal selling and trade promotions directed toward wholesalers and
retailers.
In logistics, it is a strategy which uses forecasts rather than customer demand to determine production and distribution
General
P Business Terms
Push Strategy schedules. In marketing, it is a wholesaler using promotion to create demand directly at the consumer level, bypassing
retailers. In either case, the product is “pushed” through the system by the manufacturer to the customer.
General
P Business Terms
Put Option The right to sell the underlying asset at a specified price and on a specified date.
General The relation of the value of a long call, a short put, the exercise price, and the forward price at expiration; CallTd/f - PutTd/f +
P Business Terms
Put-call Parity
Kd/f = FTd/f.
General Quantitive Restrictions on trade, generally in the form of quotas, that limit the quantity o a good or service that can be imported or
Q Business Terms Restrictions (QR) exported. Another form of quantity restriction is a VER, or Voluntary Export Restraint.
General
Q Business Terms
Questionable costs Costs that may be considered as variable or as fixed costs, depending on the specifics of the situation.
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General
Q Business Terms
Quid Pro Quo The English translation is "a favor for a favor"
General The quantity of goods of a specific kind that a country permits to be imported without restriction or imposition of additional
Q Business Terms
Quota
duties.
General
R Business Terms
Random Walk A process in which instantaneous changes in exchange rates are normally distributed with a zero mean and constant variance.
General Rate of stock The ratio of cost of goods sold over average stock (at cost). This indicates how many times, on average, the entire inventory
R Business Terms turnover (stock turn) (stock) was sold and replaced during the year.
General
R Business Terms
Ratio The proportional relationship of one thing to another
Real
General
R Business Terms
Appreciation/Depreci A change in the purchasing power of a currency.
ation
General
R Business Terms
Real Cash Flow A cash flow is expressed in real terms if the current, or date 0, purchasing power of the cash flow is given.
General A measure of the nominal exchange rate that has been adjusted for inflation differentials since an arbitrarily defined base
R Business Terms
Real Exchange Rate
period.
General
R Business Terms
Real Interest Rate Interest rate expressed in terms of real goods; that is, the nominal interest rate minus the expected inflation rate.
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General
R Business Terms
Real Options An option or option-like feature embedded in a real investment opportunity.
General
R Business Terms
Realignment The coordinated revaluation and devaluation of the currencies of several countries.
General
R Business Terms
Receipt A written acknowledgement of having received money or goods specified
Short for Account Receivables; Debts owed to your company, usually from sales on credit. Accounts receivable is a business
asset, the sum of the money owed to you by customers who haven’t paid. The standard procedure in business-to-business
General
R Business Terms
Receivables sales is that when goods or services are delivered they come with an invoice, which is to be paid later. Business customers
expect to be invoiced and to pay later. The money involved goes onto the seller’s books as accounts receivable, and onto the
buyer’s books as accounts payable.
General
R Business Terms
Receivables turnover Sales on credit for an accounting period divided by the average accounts receivables balance.
General
R Business Terms
Receivership The legal condition a company is placed in when an official receiver is appointed to investigate and manage its affairs.
General Reciprocal Marketing A strategic alliance in which two companies agree to comarket each other’s products in their home market. Production rights
R Business Terms Agreement may or may not be transferred.
General In shipping, it is the change in either the name of the consignee, the place of delivery, or relinquishment of the shipment by the
R Business Terms
Reconsignment
carrier at the point of origin.
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General The right to demand return of money paid. In negotiation of a letter of credit, payment by the negotiating bank will normally be
R Business Terms
Recourse
with recourse.
General A banking term which refers to a special clause in a letter of credit allowing the seller of goods to obtain an unsecured advance
R Business Terms
Red Clause
from the issuing bank to finance the manufacture or purchase of the goods.
Banks that are owned and operated by member nations; they are designed to extend development loans and provide other
Regional
General assistance to member nations. The world's four regional development banks are the African Development Bank Group, the
R Business Terms
Development Banks
Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American Development
(RDBs) Bank.
General The practice of using different marketing mixes to accommodate unique preferences and competitive conditions in different
R Business Terms
Regional marketing
geographical areas.
General Bonds for which each issuer maintains a record of the owners of its bonds. Countries requiring that bonds be issued in
R Business Terms
Registered Bonds
registered form include the United States and Japan (contrast with bearer bonds).
General Registration In the United States, a statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on securities issues that discloses
R Business Terms Statement relevant information to the public.
General
R Re-invoicing Centers An offshore financial affiliate that is used to channel funds to and from the multinational’s foreign operations.
Business Terms
General Expenditures that are expected to occur in the future as a result of some marketing action and differ among other potential
R Business Terms
Relevant cost
marketing alternatives.
General
R Business Terms
Remittance The forwarding of funds from one party to another as payment for goods or services.
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General
R Business Terms
Repatriation The act of remitting cash flows from a foreign affiliate to the parent firm.
General
R Business Terms
Replevin A legal action which entitles the rightful owner of property that has been wrongfully kept from him or her to recover it.
General
R Business Terms
Repositioning The process of strategically changing the perceptions surrounding a product or service.
General
R Business Terms
Rescind To void or cancel a contract.
General
R Business Terms
Reservation Price The price below (above) which a seller (purchaser) is unwilling to go.
General
R Business Terms
Residual Value The value of an asset at the conclusion of a lease.
(Websites): Your resource requirements are the personnel, time, space and equipment necessary to create and maintain your
General Resource
R Business Terms requirements
website. Remember that a website is never done; it will always require resources, some of which will be used to periodically
create new content.
General In the case of a breach of contract, restitution is the restoration of the involved parties to their original positions prior to the
R Business Terms
Restitution
contract.
General Restrictive
R Business Terms Endorsement
Endorsement transferring title or right to a named party.
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General
R Business Terms
Retail To sell directly to the consumer, usually in small quantities in comparison with the total level of sales.
General Earnings (or losses) that have been reinvested into the company, not paid out as dividends to the owners. When retained
R Business Terms
Retained earnings
earnings are negative, the company has accumulated losses.
General
R Business Terms
Retention Ratio Retained earnings divided by net income.
General
R Business Terms
Return on assets Net profits divided by total assets. A measure of profitability.
General Return on Equity

R Business Terms (ROE)
Net income after interest and taxes divided by average common stockholder's equity.
General Return On
R Business Terms Investment (ROI)
Net profits divided by net worth or total equity; yet another measure of profitability. Also called ROI.
General
R Business Terms
Return on sales Net profits divided by sales; another measure of profitability.
General
R Business Terms
Return visitors In online marketing, a website visitor who has made at least one previous visit to the site or page in question.
General
R Business Terms
Revaluation An increase in a currency value relative to other currencies in a fixed exchange rate system.
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A method of analysis that associates a numeric value between 1 and 4 regarding the spectrums of product development and
General Rich-gumpert
R the entrepreneur and management team. For example, the most desirable “4/4″ rating represents a fully developed product
Business Terms evaluation system with an established market that is supported by a fully staffed and experienced management team.
General in relation to business premises, a right given in the lease agreement for a tenant to assign the lease to another tenant when
R Business Terms
Right of assignment
the business is sold.
In patent, industrial design and trademark laws, a priority right or right of priority is a time-limited right, triggered by the first
General filing of an application for a patent, an industrial design or a trademark respectively. The priority right belongs to the applicant
R Business Terms
Right of Priority
or his successor in title and allows him to file a subsequent application for the same invention, design or trademark and benefit,
for this subsequent application, from the date of filing of the first application for the examination of certain requirements.
General An agreement defining each party’s rights should one party default on its obligation. Rights of set-off were common in parallel
R Business Terms
Rights of Set-off
loan arrangements.
General The excess return on the risky asset that is the difference between expected return on risky assets and the return of risk-free
R Business Terms
Risk Premium
assets.
General A graph with the value of an underlying asset on the x-axis and the value of a position exposed to risk in the underlying asset
R Business Terms
Risk Profile
on the y-axis. Also used with changes in value (contrast with payoff profile).
General The CAPM holds by construction when performance is measured against a mean-variance efficient index. Otherwise, it holds
R Roll’s Critique
Business Terms not at all.
General Payment made for the use of a person or business’s property based on an agreed percentage of the income arising from its
R Business Terms
Royalty
use.
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General The percent of the variation in a dependent variable (a y-variable) that is “explained by” variation in an independent variable (an
R Business Terms
R-square
x-variable). Also known as the coefficient of determination.
General
R Business Terms
Rule #1 Always keep track of your currency units.
General
R Business Terms
Rule #2 Always think of buying and selling the currency in the denominator of a foreign exchange quote.
General
R Business Terms
Rules of Origin Rules used to determine in what country a good will be considered as actually made for tariff and other trade purposes.
General
S Business Terms
Safety Stock (SS) The materials in an inventory in anticipation of unforeseen shortages of materials or abnormal demand for the final product.
General
S Business Terms
sales The total value of goods sold or revenue from services rendered.
General The sales volume at which costs are exactly equal to sales. The exact formula is: =Fixed_costs/(1-
S Business Terms
sales break-even
(Unit_Variable_Cost/Unit_Price))
General The level of sales a single organization expects to achieve based on a chosen marketing strategy and assumed competitive
S Business Terms
sales forecast
environment.
General
S Business Terms
sales on credit Sales made on account; shipments against invoices to be paid later.
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General
S Scenario Analysis A process of asking “What if?” using scenarios that capture key elements of possible future realities.
Business Terms
General scrambled
S Business Terms merchandising
The practice by wholesalers and retailers that carry an increasingly wider assortment of merchandise.
General Protected or guaranteed as in the case of a loan where the lender holds the title of some asset until the borrower has repaid
S Business Terms
Secured
the loan in full.
General Security Market Line

S Business Terms (SML)
In the CAPM, the relation between required return and systematic risk (or beta): Rj - RF + bj (E[RM] - RF).
General An investment strategy that attempts to identify individual securities that are underpriced relative to other securities in a
S Business Terms
Security Selection
particular market or industry.
General Seed capital is investment contributed at a very early stage of a new venture, usually in relatively small amounts. It comes even
S Business Terms
Seed capital
before what they call “first round” venture capital.
An element of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property that gives an inventor 12 months from the date of
General Seeking Stability the first application filed in a Paris Convention country in which to file in other Paris Convention countries. This relieves
S Business Terms Rather Than Risk companies of the burden of filing applications in many countries simultaneously. Approximately 100 countries, including the
United States, signed the Paris Convention.
General
S Business Terms
Segmented Market A market that is partially or wholly isolated from other markets by one or more market imperfections.
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General A strategy where a producer sells its products or services in a few exclusively chosen retail outlets in a specific geographical
S Business Terms
Selective distribution
area.
General A seller’s market exists when the demand for a good outweighs the supply, and so the economic forces of business cause the
S Business Terms
Seller's Market
goods to be priced at or closer to the vendor's estimate of their value.
General
S Business Terms
Selling approaches Five potential selling resources based on the sales value and the distribution of the product.
General Semi-strong Form

S Business Terms Efficient Market
A market in which prices fully reflect all publicly available information.
Senior Corps of
General
S Business Terms
Retired Executives A no-cost consulting and resources service offered through the Small Business Administration.
(SCORE)
General
S Business Terms
Sensitivity Analysis Analysis of the effect on the project when there is some change in critical variables such as sales and costs.
General The principle that portfolio choice can be separated into two independent tasks: (1) determination of the optimal risky portfolio,
S Business Terms
Separation Principle
which is purely technical problem, and (2) the personal choice of the best mix of the risky portfolio and the risk-free asset.
General
S Business Terms
Service business A business that deals in service activities such as a retailer, tourism business, banking, education provider, etc
General Set-of-contracts A view of the corporation as the nexus of a set of legal contracts linking the various stakeholders. Important contracts include
S Business Terms Perspective those with customers, suppliers, labor, management, debt, and equity.
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General Settlement of The Settlement of Disputes was a declaration made by the UN stating that any water-based international disagreement must
S Business Terms Disputes be settled in a peaceful and diplomatic manner.
General
S Business Terms
Shareholders Individuals or companies that legally own one or more shares of stock in a company.
General
S Business Terms
Sharpe Index A measure of risk-adjusted investment performance in excess return per unit of total risk: SI = (RP - RF)/(sP).
General
S Business Terms
Shipper Usually the supplier or owner of commodities shipped.
General
S Business Terms
Short Position A position in which a particular asset (such as a spot or forward currency) has been sold.
General
S Business Terms
Short Selling Selling an asset that you do not own, or taking a short position.
Normally used to distinguish between short-term and long-term, when referring to assets or liabilities. Definitions vary because
General different companies and accountants handle this in different ways. Accounts payable is always a short-term liability, and cash,
S Business Terms
Short-term
accounts receivable and inventory are always short-term assets. Most companies call any debt of less than five-year terms
short-term debt. Assets that depreciate over more than five years (e.g., plant and equipment) are usually long-term assets.
General Cash, securities, bank accounts, accounts receivable, inventory, business equipment, assets that last less than five years or
S Business Terms
Short-term assets
are depreciated over terms of less than five years. Also called Current Assets.
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These are debts with terms of five years or less. These are also called current liabilities, short-term loans, or short-term
General
S Short-term liabilities (current) debts. These may also include short-term debts that don’t cause interest expenses. For example, they might be loans
Business Terms from founders or accrued taxes (taxes owed, already incurred, but not yet paid).
General
S Business Terms
Short-term notes These are the same as short-term loans. These are debts with terms of five years or less.
General
S Business Terms
Side Effect Any aspect of an investment project that can be valued separately from the project itself.
General
S Business Terms
Sight Draft A draft that is payable on demand.
General The use of observable managerial actions in the marketplace as an indication of management’s beliefs concerning the
S Business Terms
Signaling
prospects of the company.
General
S Business Terms
Simple Interest Interest calculated by considering only the original principal amount.
General Simple linear

S Business Terms regression
A linear correlation that offers a straight-line projection based on the variables considered.
General The assessment of operations to determine the reasons for the gap between what was or is expected, and what has happened
S Business Terms
Situation analysis
or will happen.
General Skimming pricing Setting a relatively high initial price for a new product or service when there is a strong price-perceived quality relationship that
S Business Terms strategy targets early adopters that are price insensitive. The price may be lowered over time.
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General
S Business Terms
Slotting allowances Payments to store chains for acquiring and maintaining shelf space.
General Small Business An independent agency of the U.S. federal government that aids, counsels, assists, and protects the interests of small
S Business Terms Administration (SBA) business concerns to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of the nation.
Small Business
General A division of the Small Business Administration that offers “venture capital-like” resources to higher risk businesses seeking
S Business Terms
Investment Council
capital.
(SBIC)
General Passed in 1930, this protectionist act increased import duties to the highest rate ever imposed by the United States, resulting in
S Business Terms
Smoot Hawley Act
the downfall of the world trade system.
General
S Business Terms
Social Capital Physical or real capital that is owned by the public sector rather than by private firms.
Society for Worldwide

General Interbank Financial
S Business Terms Transactions
Network through which international banks conduct their financial transactions.
(SWIFT)
General In a letter of credit, a soft clause is a clause which renders it impossible for the beneficiary, or seller, to fulfill the conditions of
S Business Terms
Soft Clause
the letter separately and independently of the purchaser.
General
S Business Terms
Soft Currency A currency which is not readily accepted in exchange for other currencies or convertible to gold.
General
S Business Terms
Soft Loan A loan with generous terms such as lower than usual or no interest, and/or a long payback period.
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General
S Business Terms
Sogo Sosha A term referring to general trading companies that import and export merchandise.
General A business owned by a single individual. The sole proprietorship pays no corporate income tax but has unlimited liability for
S Business Terms
Sole Proprietorship
business debts and obligations.
General A person who trades by himself/herself without the use of a company structure or partners and bears alone full responsibility
S Business Terms
Sole trader
for the actions of the business.
General
S Business Terms
Solvent The condition of a business when all debts can be paid as they come due.
South Asian The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established on December 8, 1985. Its members states
General Association for consist of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Its main areas of cooperation are Agriculture
S Business Terms Regional Cooperation and Rural Development; Health and Population Activities; Women, Youth and Children; Environment and Forestry; Science
(SAARC) and Technology and Meteorology; Human Resources Development; and Transport.
Southern African Established in 1910, the SACU is the oldest customs union in the world and is composed of South Africa, Swaziland,
General
S Business Terms
Customs Union Botswana, Namibia, and Lesotho. The countries engage in the free exchange of goods across their borders, and a share a
(SACU) common external tariff and excise duties, as well as the revenues generated by them.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was first established in 1992. It is the successor to the Southern
Southern African
General African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). The Member States are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic
S Business Terms
Development
of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of
Community (SADC) Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
General
S Business Terms
Southern Cone The geographic region including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
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General
S Business Terms
Sovereignty The rights of a country to rule itself, to manage its own affairs, and to jurisdiction over land, airspace, and maritime matters.
General Special Drawing An international reserve created by the International Monetary Fund and allocated to member countries to supplement foreign
S Business Terms Right (SDR) exchange reserves.
General
S Business Terms
Specific Tariff A tariff assessed at a specific amount per unit of weight.
General
S Business Terms
Spot Exchange-rate Exchange-rate today for settlement in two days.
General
S Business Terms
Spot Market A market in which trades are made for immediate delivery (within two business days for most spot currencies).
General
S Business Terms
Stabilization Policies Government policies designed to promote economic growth, steady employment, and stable prices.
General Those with an interest in the firm. A narrow definition includes the corporation’s debt and equity holders. A broader definition
S Business Terms
Stakeholders
includes labor, management, and perhaps other interested parties, such as customers, suppliers, and society at large.
General
S Business Terms
Stamp Tax A tax on a financial transaction.
General
S Business Terms
Standard Deviation The positive square root of the variance. This is the standard statistical measure of the spread of a sample.
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General Standard Industrial

S Business Terms Classification (SIC)
A standard numerical code system used by the U.S. government to classify products and services.
General
S Business Terms
Starting date The starting date for the entire business plan.
General Stated Annual

S Business Terms Interest Rate
The interest rate expressed as a percentage per annum, by which interest payment is determined.
General Stationary Time

S Business Terms Series
A time series in which the process generating returns is identical at every instant of time.
1) Goods on hand, either finished goods or materials to be used to manufacture goods. Also called Inventory. 2) Stock can
General
S Business Terms
Stock also refer to privately held or publicly traded shares or securities representing investment in, or partial ownership of, a
business. Public trading of such stock occurs on the stock market.
General Stock at valuation

S Business Terms (SAV)
Stock valued at wholesale or cost price.
General The method of determining how much stock should be held and how much needs to be reordered and when, with the aim of
S Business Terms
Stock control
controlling stock holding costs while maintaining efficient operation of the business.
General
S Business Terms
Stock Index Futures A futures contract on a stock index.
General A swap involving a stock index. The other asset involved in a stock index swap can be another stock index (a stock-for-stock
S Business Terms
Stock Index Swap
swap), a debt index (a debt-for-stock swap), or any other financial asset or financial price index.
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General
S Business Terms
Stock Market An institution that facilitates the buying and selling of stocks.
General Total cost of sales divided by inventory (materials or goods on hand). Usually calculated using the average inventory over an
S Business Terms
Stock turnover
accounting period, not an ending-inventory value. Also called Inventory Turnover.
General A collaborative agreement between two companies designed to achieve some strategic goal. Strategic alliances include
S Business Terms
Strategic Alliance
international licensing agreements, management contracts, and joint ventures as special cases.
General The practice of assessing the direction of the organization as evidenced by its implicit or explicit goals, objectives, strategies,
S Business Terms
Strategic control
and capacity to perform in the context of changing environmental and competitive actions.
The planned process of defining the organization’s business, mission, and goals; identifying and framing organizational
General Strategic marketing
S Business Terms management
opportunities; formulating product-market strategies, budgeting marketing, financial, and production resources; developing
reformulation.
General
S Business Terms
Striking Price The price at which an option can be exercised (also called the exercise price).
General In the U.S. tax code, income from foreign subsidiaries owned more than 10 percent and controlled foreign corporations that is
S Business Terms
Subpart F Income
taxed on a pro rata basis as it is earned.
General
S Business Terms
Subsidiary Any organization controlled by another with more than 50 percent of its whose voting capital held by the latter.
General
S Business Terms
Subsidized Financing Financing that is provided by a host government and that is issued at a below-market interest rate.
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General Monetary assistance granted by the government to an individual or other entity in support of an activity that is regarded as
S Business Terms
Subsidy
being in the public interest.
General Subsistence
S Business Terms Agriculture
Small-scale agriculture designed to meet the consumption needs of individual households.
Primary success factors include considerations regarding: 1) The choice of business based on the status of the market 2)
General
S Business Terms
Success factors Education and experience 3) People and collaboration 4) Creativity and innovation versus business skills and networks 5)
Incubation potential 6) Leveraging available resources 7) Management practices
General Success The basic tasks that must be performed by an organization in a market or industry to compete successfully. These are
S Business Terms requirements sometimes “key success factors.”
General A cost that has already occurred and cannot be removed. Because sunk costs are in the past, such costs should be ignored
S Business Terms
Sunk Cost
when deciding whether to accept or reject a project.
General
S Business Terms
Supervisory Board The board of directors that represents stakeholders in the governance of the corporation.
General In relation to the GST, supplies include the goods and services you sell through your enterprise and many other transactions
S Business Terms
Supplies
such as providing advice or information, leasing out commercial premises or providing hire equipment.
(Nonprofit): Also called Profit and Loss statement, in for-profit plans. An income statement is a financial statement that shows
General funding, cost of funding, gross surplus, operating expenses, and surplus or deficit. Gross surplus is funding less cost of
S Business Terms
Surplus or deficit
funding, and surplus (or deficit) is gross surplus less operating expenses and taxes. The result is surplus if it is positive, deficit
if it is negative.
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General An agreement to exchange two liabilities (or assets) and, after a prearranged length of time, to reexchange the liabilities (or
S Business Terms
Swap
assets).
General
S Swap Book A swap bank’s portfolio of swaps, usually arranged by currency and by maturity.
Business Terms
General
S Business Terms
Swaption A swap with one or more options attached.
General The costs incurred in changing from one provider of a product or service to another. Switching costs may be tangible or
S Business Terms
Switching costs
intangible costs incurred due to the change of this source.
General A sequence of options in which exercise of one option creates one or more additional options. Investment-disinvestment, entry-
S Business Terms
Switching Options
exit, expansion-contraction, and suspension-reactivation decisions are examples of switching options.
General A formal framework of identifying and framing organizational growth opportunities. SWOT is an acronym for an organization’s
S Business Terms
SWOT analysis
internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats.
General
S Business Terms
Syndicate The selling group of investment banks in a public securities offering.
General In an acquisition or merger, when the value of the combination is greater than the sum of the individual parts: Synergy = VAT -
S Business Terms
Synergy
(VA + VT).
General Synthetic Forward A forward position constructed through borrowing in one currency, lending in another currency, and offsetting these
S Business Terms Position transactions in the spot exchange market.
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General Innovation resulting from an intentional and organized process to evaluate opportunities to introduce change, based on a
S Business Terms
Systematic innovation
definition provided by Peter Drucker. The sources of innovation may be internal or external to the enterprise.
General
S Business Terms
Systematic Risk Risk that is common to all assets and cannot be diversified away (measured by beta).
General
T Business Terms
Tactics A collection of tools, activities and business decisions required to implement a strategy.
General
T Business Terms
Tangibility Tangible assets are real assets that can be used as collateral to secure debt.
General
T Business Terms
Tangible asset Something substantial or real that is capable of being given an actual or approximate value.
General
T Business Terms
Tare Weight The weight of a container and packing materials that excludes the weight of the goods it contains.
The target market is a defined segment of the market that is the strategic focus of a business or a marketing plan. Normally
General the members of this segment possess common characteristics and a relative high propensity to purchase a particular product
T Business Terms
Target market
or service. Because of this, the member of this segment represent the greatest potential for sales volume and frequency. The
target market is often defined in terms of geographic, demographic, and psychographic characteristics.
The process of marketing to a specific market segment or multiple segments. Differentiated target marketing occurs when an
General
T Business Terms
Target marketing organization simultaneously pursues several different market segments, usually with a different strategy for each.
Concentrated target marketing occurs when a single market segment is pursued.
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General Targeted Registered Securities issues sold to “targeted” foreign financial institutions according to U.S. SEC guidelines. These foreign institutions
T Business Terms Offerings then maintain a secondary market in the foreign market.
General The state of having a tariff on raw materials or semi-processed products be higher than the tariff on the corresponding finished
T Business Terms
Tariff Anomaly
product.
General The situation which duties are low or non-existent for raw materials, moderate for semi-manufactured goods and relatively high
T Business Terms
Tariff Escalation
for finished products.
General A tariff that is set at a lower rate until a specified quantity (the quota) of goods has been imported, at which point the tariff
T Business Terms
Tariff-quota
increases for additional imports.
General
T Business Terms
Tariffs Taxes on imported goods and services, levied by governments to raise revenues and create barriers to trade.
General
T Business Terms
Tax Arbitrage Arbitrage using a difference in tax rates or tax systems as the basis for profit.
General
T Tax Clienteles Clienteles of investors with specific preferences for debt or equity that are driven by differences in investors’ personal tax rates.
Business Terms
General
T Business Terms
Tax Haven A country or region imposing low or no taxes on foreign source income.
General A wholly owned affiliate that is in a low-tax jurisdiction and that is used to channel funds to and from the multinational’s foreign
T Business Terms
Tax Haven Affiliate
operations. The tax benefits of tax-haven affiliates were largely removed in the United States by the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
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General
T Business Terms
Tax Holiday A reduced tax rate provided by a government as an inducement to foreign direct investment.
A document generally issued by the supplier. It shows the price of a supply, indicating whether it includes GST, and may show
General
T Business Terms
Tax invoice the amount of GST. It must show other information, including the ABN of the supplier. You must have a tax invoice before you
can claim an input tax credit on your activity statement (except for purchases of $50 or less).
General
T Business Terms
Tax Neutrality Taxes that do not interfere with the natural flow of capital toward its most productive use.
General Items such as tax-loss carryforwards and carrybacks and investment tax credits that shield corporate taxable income from
T Business Terms
Tax Preference Items
taxes.
General
T Business Terms
Tax rate percent An assumed percentage applied against pre-tax income to determine taxes.
General
T Business Terms
Taxes incurred Taxes owed but not yet paid.
General
T Business Terms
Technical Analysis Any method of forecasting future exchange rates based on the history of exchange rates.
General
T Business Terms
Telemarketing A form of direct marketing that uses the telephone to reach potential customers.
A translation accounting method (such as FAS #8 in the United States) that translates monetary assets and liabilities at current
General
T Business Terms
Temporal Method exchange rates and all other balance sheet accounts at historical exchange rates. Also known as monetary/nonmonetary
method.
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General
T Business Terms
Term loan A loan for a fixed period of more than one year and repayable by regular instalments.
General Territorial Tax A tax system that taxes domestic income but not foreign income. This tax regime is found in Hong Kong, France, Belgium, and
T Business Terms System the Netherlands.
Is the U.S. Government's most comprehensive source of international trade data and export promotion information. Types of
General The National Trade information on the NTDB include: international market research, export opportunities; indices of foreign and domestic
T Business Terms Data Bank (NTDB) companies; how-to market guides; reports on demographic, political, and socio-economic conditions for hundreds of countries;
and much more.
General
T Business Terms
Tied Loan A loan issued by a government requiring the borrower to spend the funds in the lending country.
General
T Business Terms
Time Draft A draft that is payable on a specified future dare.
General Time Value of an

T The difference between the value of an option and the option’s intrinsic value.
Business Terms Option
General
T Business Terms
Timing Option The ability of the firm to postpone investment (or disinventment) and to reconsider the decision at a future date.
General Total Quality

T Business Terms Management (TQM)
An organization-wide approach to continuously improving the overall quality of its process, products, and service.
General
T Business Terms
Total Risk The sum of systematic and unsystematic risk (measured by the standard deviation or variance of return).
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General
T Business Terms
Trade Acceptance A time draft that is drawn on and accepted by an importer.
General
T Trade Balance A country’s net balance (exports minus imports) on merchandise trade.
Business Terms
General
T Business Terms
Trade Barrier A governmental policy, action, or practice that intentionally interrupts the free flow of goods or services between countries.
General
T Business Terms
Trade credit An arrangement to buy goods or services on account, that is, without making immediate cash payment.
General
T Business Terms
Trade Deficit A trade deficit occurs when the value of a country's exports is less than the value of its imports.
General An allowance made by a seller to a buyer at the time of purchase, for the deduction of a percentage of the price, provided the
T Business Terms
Trade discount
payment is made within agreed terms.
General The difference between unit sales price and unit cost and each level of a marketing channel usually expressed in percentage
T Business Terms
Trade margin
terms.
General Can be a letter, number, word, phrase, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture, aspect of packaging or any combination of these,
T Business Terms
Trade mark
which is used to distinguish goods and / or services of one trader from those of another
General
T Business Terms
Trade Surplus A trade surplus occurs when the value of a country's exports is greater than the value of its imports.
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General
T Business Terms
Trade-in Allowance Price discount granted for a new item by turning in an old item at the time of purchase.
General
T Business Terms
Trademark A registration process under which a name, logo, or characteristic can be identified as exclusive.
General
T Business Terms
Tradeoffs A kind of interaction involving the offsetting of high costs in one section with lower or diminished costs in another.
General
T Business Terms
Trading Desk The desk at an international bank that trades spot and forward foreign exchange. Also known as dealing desk.
General
T Business Terms
Trading down The process of reducing the number of features or quality of an offering to realize a lower purchase price.
General The practice of improving an offering by adding new features and higher quality materials or adding products or services to
T Business Terms
Trading up
increase the purchase price.
General
T Business Terms
Traffic In broad, general terms, the number of visitors and visits a website receives.
General
T Business Terms
Transaction Exposure Changes in the value of contractual (monetary) cash flows as a result of changes in currency values.
General Transaction
T Business Terms Statement
A document that clearly outlines the terms and conditions agreed upon between an importer and an exporter.
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General The price one unit of a company charges to another unit of the same company for goods or services exchanged between the
T Business Terms
Transfer Pricing
two.
General Changes in a corporation’s financial statements as a result of changes in currency values. Also known as accounting
T Business Terms
Translation Exposure
exposure.
General
T Business Terms
Transparency The observed degree of clarity, openness, measurability, and verifiability in a law, regulation, agreement, or trade practice.
General Treaty between Spain and Portugal that divided the South American continent (among other lands) between the two countries.
T Business Terms
Treaty of Tordesillas
Ratified in 1494, it originally gave Spain much more land than Portugal.
General
T Business Terms
Trial balance A list of all balances in the ledger at a given time.
General A bank or trust company that holds title to or a security interest in leased property for the benefit of the lessee, lessor, and/or
T Business Terms
Trustee
creditors of the lessor.
General An offer in writing to carry out work, which has been specified by another person. The offer quotes a fixed price, which will be
T Business Terms
Ttender
charged for doing the work.
General
T Business Terms
Turnkey Contract An agreement in which a contractor is responsible for setting up a facility from start to finish for another firm.
General The condition imposed by a seller which obliges a buyer to agree to purchase an additional product (tied product) if they wish
T Business Terms
Tying Arrangement
to purchase their desired product (tying product).
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General In shipping, the umbrella rate is a rate system designed to protect less competitive carriers by setting artificially high minimum
U Business Terms
Umbrella Rate
rates.
Unbiased
General
U Business Terms
Expectations The hypothesis that forward exchange rates are unbiased predictors of future spot rates (see forward parity).
Hypothesis
General Uncertainty
U Business Terms Avoidance
The extent to which a society tolerates uncertainty and ambiguity.
General
U Business Terms
Undercapitalisation Insufficient investment of funds in a business.
General
U Business Terms
Unemployment Rate The ratio of the total number of unemployed persons to the total number of persons in the labor force.
Union Economique et
General UEMOA is composed of Bening, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Its purpose is to
U Business Terms
Monetaire Ouest
unite members through competition in an open market.
Africaine (UEMOA)
General In online marketing, a website metric tracking the number of uniquely identified clients generating requests on the Web server
U Business Terms
Unique user sessions
(log analysis) or viewing pages (page tagging). A visitor can make multiple visits.
General
U Business Terms
Unit variable cost The specific labor and materials associated with a single unit of goods sold. Does not include general overhead.
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United Nations UNCTAD was established in 1964 with the goal of promoting sustainable development while integrating developing countries
General Conference on Trade into the world economy. It works to achieve this goal by acting as a forum for intergovernmental deliberations with an aim at
U Business Terms and Development consensus building; conducting research, policy analysis, and data collection; and by providing technical assistance tailored to
(UNCTAD) the specific needs of different developing countries.
United Nations
Industrial UNIDO helps developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their fight against marginalization in today's
General
U Business Terms
Development globalized world. It mobilizes knowledge, skills, information, and technology to promote productive employment, a competitive
Organization economy, and a sound environment.
(UNIDO)
General The unit sales volume at which the fixed and variable costs are exactly equal to sales. The formula is:
U Business Terms
Units break-even
UBE=Fixed_costs/(Unit_Price-Unit_Variable_Cost)
General The beta (or systematic risk) of a project as if it were financed with 100 percent equity. Also known as systematic business
U Business Terms
Unlevered Beta
risk.
General Unlevered Cost of

U Business Terms Equity
The discount rate appropriate for an investment assuming it is financed with 100 percent equity.
Business Plan Pro uses this term to refer to other short-term liabilities in the Start-up table. Normally these would be expenses
incurred with credit cards during the start-up phase, such as expenses for office furniture, fixtures, and equipment. Amounts
General
U Business Terms
Unpaid expenses typed into this cell in the Start-up table become the opening balance for Other Short-term Liabilities in the balance sheet. To
pay these amounts when due, enter negative dollar amounts into the corresponding row on the Cash Flow table, the one for
“other short-term liabilities.”
General
U Business Terms
Unsecured loan A loan that is not backed up by any collateral, such as a home or an automobile offered as security.
General
U Business Terms
Unsustainable Debt A financial condition in which a country is unable to service its foreign (external) debt without decimating its economy.
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General
U Business Terms
Unsystematic Risk Risk that is specific to a particular security or country and that can be eliminated through diversification.
General Understanding and appreciating the base reason an individual purchases a product or service that may not directly correlate
U Business Terms
User benefits
with the feature or function of the good or service. These benefits may be intangible.
User Interface. It is the graphic design and appearance of a website, its function as seen and used by the person on the user
General end, at the website in a browser. The UI of a website is ultimately how it lets users know what it has to offer them. If it lacks an
U Business Terms
User Interface (UI)
easy navigation scheme users get lost, and never find the information on a site. The full potential of any website is unleashed
through the UI.
General In online marketing, a conversion value measuring the number of website visitors who voluntarily include themselves in your
U Business Terms
User registrations
database in order to access the content you provide on your website.
General The practice of charging or paying exorbitant interest on a loan or other transaction. Note: in Islamic societies, charging, or
U Business Terms
Usury
receiving any amount of interest is considered usury.
Used as a noun, Valuation is what a business is worth, as in “this company’s valuation is $10 million.” This would mean that a
General company is valued at $10 million, or worth $10 million. The term is used most often for discussions of sale or purchase of a
V Business Terms
Valuation
company; it’s valuation is the price of a share times the number of shares outstanding, and the price of a share is the total
valuation divided by the number of shares outstanding. For more business valuation, read more about Business Valuation.
General
V Business Terms
Value The ratio of perceived benefits compared to price for a product or service.
General A value-added process in a firm to transform raw materials and other inputs to finished goods, which creates value to
V Business Terms
Value Chain
customers.
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General
V Business Terms
Value Date Date on which a foreign exchange contract is executed, i.e. seller delivers.
General Stocks with low price/book ratios or price/earnings ratios. Historically, value stocks have enjoyed higher average returns than
V Business Terms
Value Stocks
growth stocks (stocks with high price/book or PE ratios) in a variety of countries.
General
V Business Terms
Value-added Reseller A company that purchases products from a variety of sources to produce a new finished product for sale.
General Value-added Tax

V Business Terms (VAT)
A sales tax collected at each stage of production in proportion to the value added during that stage.
Costs that fluctuate in direct proportion to the volume of units produced. The best and most obvious example are physical
costs of goods sold, direct costs, such as materials, products purchased for resale, production costs and overhead, etc. The
General
V Business Terms
Variable cost concept of variable cost is an important component of risk in a company, because generally variable costs are less risky than
fixed costs, because variable costs are not incurred unless there are sales and production. See also break-even analysis, fixed
costs, contribution.
General A calculation of the difference between plan and actual results, used by analysts to manage and track the impact of planning
V Business Terms
Variance
and budgeting.
General
V Business Terms
Vendor A seller of goods or of a business.
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Venture capital nowadays is used two ways: first, people often take venture capital as any investment capital obtained through
private investment or public investment funds directed to high-risk and high-potential enterprises. Second, within the more
informed and sophisticated business circles, venture capital is defined more narrowly as investment money coming from the
General
V Business Terms
Venture capital mainstream venture capital firms, a few hundred major firms, different from investment money from other private investors,
angels, etc. For example, the www.bplans.com web tool that recommends investment strategies treats venture capital in this
second way, mainstream venture capital investors, as opposed to angel investors, SBIC companies, banks, or friends and
family. A venture capitalist is a professional manager of a venture capital fund.
Venture capitalists are thought of in two ways: first, some people think of any wealthy individual who invests in young
General Venture capitalists
V Business Terms (VC)
companies as a venture capitalist. Second, within the more informed investors, analysts, and entrepreneurs, a venture
capitalist is a manager of a mainstream venture capital fund.
General
V Business Terms
Virtual Corporation Partnerships so close those two partners become a single firm for all operational purposes.
General
V Business Terms
Volume An amount or quantity of business activity.
General Voluntary Export One country promises another country to limit its imports; this is often done when the promising country fears increased tariffs
V Business Terms Restraint (VER) or quotas if it does not self-regulate.
General Walk in, walk out An expression normally used in its abbreviated form, regarding a business for sale. It indicates that the business is for sale as
W Business Terms (WIWO) a going concern and may be purchased without interruption to trading.
General
W Business Terms
Warehouse Receipt A receipt issued by a warehouse listing the goods received.
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General Warehouse-to-
W Business Terms Warehouse
An insurance policy that covers goods over the entire journey from the seller's to the buyer's premises.
General An option issued by a company that allows the holder to purchase equity from the company at a predetermined price prior to
W Business Terms
Warrant
an expiration date. Warrants are frequently attached to Eurobonds.
General Weak Form Efficient

W Business Terms Market
It is a market in which prices fully reflect the information in past prices.
General
W Business Terms
Weight Note A document issued by either the exporter or a third party declaring the weight of goods in a consignment.
Weighted Average
General
W Business Terms
Cost of Capital A discount rate that reflects the after-tax required returns on debt and equity capital.
(WACC)
West African
A regional alliance of Francophone West African countries dedicated to promoting economic integration among the seven
General Economic and
W member countries. The country members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. They all
Business Terms Monetary Union share a common currency and have a central bank to oversee it.
(UEMOA)
General
W Business Terms
Wharfage Charge A charge assessed by a pier or dock owner for handling incoming or outgoing cargo.
General
W Business Terms
Wholesale Selling in large quantities to businesses which will then resell to consumers in smaller quantities.
General A tax on dividend or interest income that is withheld for payment of taxes in a host country. Payment is typically withheld by the
W Business Terms
Withholding Tax
financial institution distributing the payment.
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General In shipping this indicates that a shipper’s agent has the power to make important decisions abroad without the consent of those
W Business Terms
Without Reserve
the agent represents.
General Workers’ Money paid to an employee to compensate for injuries received in connection with their work. All employers must insure
W Business Terms compensation against claims for this kind of compensation.
General
W Business Terms
Working Capital An accounting term that indicates the difference between current assets and current liabilities.
An international organization created at Breton Woods in 1944 to help in the reconstruction and development of its member
General
W Business Terms
World Bank nations. Its goal is to improve the quality of life for people in the poorer regions of the world by promoting sustainable economic
development. See also International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The WCO is an international organization whose function is the facilitation of trade between member states through the
General World Customs simplification and standardization of customs practices. The WCO was established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation
W Business Terms Organization (WCO) Council. This name was then changed in 1994 to the World Customs Organization. Today WCO provides regulations and
standards to 169 Customs administrations worldwide.
World Intellectual The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an international organization focused on the protection of intellectual
General
W Business Terms
Property Organization property. WIPO administers 23 international treaties and is one of 16 specialized agencies of the Untied Nations. 183 nations
(WIPO) are part of the WIPO and its headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland.
The WTO is a multilateral organization that promotes free and fair trade among the nations of the world. It was created in 1994
General World Trade
W Business Terms Organization (WTO)
by 121 nations at the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO is responsible for
implementation and administration of the trade agreement.
General Worldwide Tax A tax system that taxes worldwide income as it is repatriated to the parent company. It is utilized in Japan, the United Kingdom,
W Business Terms System and the United States.
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General
W Business Terms
Writ A judicial order to an officer of the law, such as a judge or a sheriff, to perform or have performed a specified act.
WTO Committee on
General The WTO Committee on Trade and Development is a forum for discussion on all multi-interest issues of special interest to
W Business Terms
Trade and
developing countries.
Development (CTD)
General The abbreviation used to refer to the Year 2000 computer problems resulting from the use of two-digit year inputs. Left
Y Business Terms
Y2K Issues
uncorrected, computers would have recognized the input 00 to mean 1900 and not 2000.
General
Y Business Terms
Yield to Maturity The discount rate that equates the present value of interest payments and redemption value with the present price of the bond.
Large family-owned conglomerates that controlled much of the economy of Japan prior to World War II. The four most
General
Z Business Terms
Zaibatsu historically significant zaibatsus, the Big Four, are Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Yasuda, and Sumitomo whose roots date back to the
Japanese Edo period.
General A German expression that can be interpreted to mean “the spirit of time.” It indicates the general intellectual state and outlook
Z Business Terms
Zeitgeist
of an era or generation.
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Encyclopedia General Business Terms

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Encyclopedia General Business Terms (1296 Terms) Powered by www.drawpack.com; All rights reserved.

General Accelerated Tariff

General Adjusted Present

General Arbitrage Pricing

General Asset Allocation

General Average Accounting

General Bond Equivalent

General Brand extension

General Capital Asset Pricing

General Cash With Order

Central America Free

General Centrally Planned

General Certificate of Product

General Change in Net

General Commodity Price

General Completed store

General Concentrated target

General Controlled Foreign

General Core marketing

General Currency Coupon

General Currency Cross-

General Deferred Payment

General Direct Costs of

General Direct Product

General Dispute Settlement

General Earnings Response

General Effective Annual

European Bank for

General European Central

General European Currency

General European Monetary

General Export Credit

General Fast Track

General Fidelity guarantee

General Fighting brand

General First mover

General Fixed Forward

General Foreign Direct

General Foreign Equity

General Foreign Exchange

General Foreign Exchange

General Foreign Exchange

General Forward Foreign

General Full-cost price

General Futures Commission

General Harmonized Tariff

General Indication Pricing

General Indirect Costs of

General Initial Public Offering

General Integrated Financial

General Integrated marketing

International Bank for

General Intrinsic Value of an

General Lesser Developed

General Long-term interest

Market plan: its

General Monetary Assets and

General Mutually Exclusive

General Net Currency

General Newly Industrializing

General Nonmonetary Assets

North American Free

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General Offering mix or