Glossary

Management > Glossary

• Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) - restructuring an entire company by changing its processes, such as improving customer contact. Encourages continuous learning and change, and making the firm more customer-orientated. See Organisational Knowledge, lecture 1
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - the person who runs the company and is involved in the fundamental decision-making process. See Crisis Management, lecture 2
• Chinese Family Business (CFB) - firms in China which are run by and structured around the family, serving solely the family's needs, regardless of any non-family employees. See Asian Management, lecture 3
• Closed system - when companies are completely in control of their internal operations, meaning that accidents should never occur. See Crisis Management, lecture 1
• Corporatization - the act of taking the relinquishing control of services from direct government control and putting them into the hands of government run firms. Asian Management, lecture 2
• Double-loop learning - learning from changing fundamental attitudes and beliefs of a theory, rather than just using past experience. Organisational Knowledge, lecture 1
• Flying Geese - a term describing the transfer of technology from developed countries to less developed countries, helping the latter become more competitively advantaged. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 6.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) - the act of a firm investing in a business in another country in order to control that business. Different from Portfolio investment. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 1
• Human Resources (HR) - the department in a firm responsible for dealing with the people, from employee complaints and salaries to recruitment and redundant procedures. See Crisis Management, lecture 2
• Internalisation (I) - the act of a firm using its firm-specific capability (OA) itself to become a multinational enterprise (MNE), rather than licensing it to another firm. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 7
• Just in Time (JIT) - a production technique originating in Japan, where supplies are ordered into the manufacturing facility after a customer has made an order. See Asian Management, lecture 1.
• Less Developed Countries (LCD) - countries which are less economically developed, such as Africa. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 6
• Listed - when an Eastern firm becomes Westernised. See Asian management, lecture 2.
• Location advantage (LA) - the advantages of a country which may attract business, such as a workforce or raw materials. These advantages are defined by their immobility. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 6
• Market failure - when a market is imperfect, such as when the price of a product does not reflect its cost or when resources are not efficiently allocated. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 3
• Marketization - the act of changing a firm to fit in a capitalist environment, where businesses rely on the market, rather on government intervention, for success. See Asian Management, lecture 2
• Multinational Enterprise (MNE) - also known as a Multinational Corporation (MNC) or a Transnational Corporation (TNC), this is a firm which runs parts of its business outside its home country. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 1
• Ownership advantage (OA) - where a firm differentiates itself from its competitors by acquiring and/or developing an asset, such as a low-cost product or good top management. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 3
• Portfolio Investment - the act of investing in a company by acquiring shares, which entitles the buyer to a percentage of the company's profits, but does not enable the buyer to directly control the firm's movements. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 1
• Price Mechanism - the process of working out how much to charge for the product or service, based on the total of your costs. See Asian Management, lecture 2
• Privatized - when a government run firm is sold to private investors and shares are made available to the public. See Asian Management, lecture 2
• Research and Development (R&D) - the learning part of a business which researches into new ways of making its product or service better. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 1
• Single-loop learning - when people learn one thing and use it again and again when a problem arises, rather than tackling each issue individually and learning a new way of solving it. See Crisis Management, lecture 2
• State Owned Enterprise (SOE) - a firm owned or controlled by the State. These are common in Communist countries, such as China. See Asian Management, lecture 2
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) - procedures taken to ensure smooth running of a business. See Crisis Management, lecture 1
• Subsidiary - a company owned and controlled by a larger, parent firm. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 1
• Switching costs - the costs (in time or money, for example) of transferring from one thing, such as a company, to another. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 7
• Total Quality Control (TQC) - a production method derived from Japan, where emphasis on quality of a product is integrated into every part of the production process. See Asian Management, lecture 1.
• Transaction costs - the cost (in factors as well as money, such as time) of making a transaction, from selling something on the market to sharing a company secret. See Understanding the Global Firm, lecture 7