NCEA Level 3 Business Studies flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Business activity

A planned undertaking by a team or individual to achieve a business purpose, used in Level 3 internal assessment and evidenced through planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Internal assessment evidence

Work produced for an internally assessed standard, which must show the candidate's own thinking and contribution rather than only the group's collective product.

External examination resource booklet

The context material supplied with the Level 3 external paper, containing information about a New Zealand business that candidates must analyse and apply business concepts to.

Describe versus explain

Describing states what happens or what something is; explaining gives reasons and causal links showing why it happens or how it leads to an outcome.

Analyse

Breaking a business situation into its parts, identifying causes and effects, and explaining the relationships and consequences between them in a logical sequence.

Evaluate

Making a judgement by weighing competing factors against stated criteria, acknowledging trade-offs, and reaching a justified conclusion or recommendation.

Business objective

A goal a business pursues, such as profit, survival, growth, market share, sustainability, or community wellbeing; objectives can compete and change over time.

Stakeholder

Any individual or group affected by or interested in a business decision, including owners, employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, communities, and iwi or hapū.

Māori enterprise

A business owned or governed with Māori values and tikanga, often balancing commercial returns with cultural, social, and environmental responsibilities to whānau, hapū, and iwi.

Social enterprise

An organisation that trades to generate revenue while prioritising a social or environmental mission, reinvesting surplus toward that mission rather than maximising owner profit.

Small and medium enterprise

A business below a defined size threshold in employees or turnover; in New Zealand such firms make up most businesses and face distinct financing and capability constraints.

Business plan

A document setting out objectives, market analysis, operations, marketing, and financial forecasts, used to guide implementation and to support applications for finance.

Market research

Systematic collection of primary and secondary information about customers, competitors, and markets to reduce uncertainty before a business decision or launch.

Primary versus secondary data

Primary data is collected first-hand for the specific purpose, such as surveys or interviews; secondary data already exists, such as industry reports or government statistics.

Break-even point

The output level at which total revenue equals total costs, so profit is zero; calculated as fixed costs divided by contribution per unit.

Contribution margin

Selling price minus variable cost per unit; it shows how much each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs and then generating profit.

Cash flow forecast

A projection of expected cash inflows and outflows over a period, used to identify timing shortages even when the business is profitable overall.

Working capital

Current assets minus current liabilities; it measures short-term liquidity and the ability to fund day-to-day operations as obligations fall due.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next best alternative forgone when a business commits resources to one course of action rather than another.

Economies of scale

Reductions in average cost per unit as output rises, arising from spreading fixed costs, bulk purchasing, specialisation, or improved technology and process efficiency.

Elasticity of demand

The responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price or income; elastic demand means quantity changes proportionally more than price.

SWOT analysis

A structured review of internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats, used to inform strategy but limited unless factors are weighed and prioritised.

Stakeholder conflict

A situation where meeting one group's interests, such as higher wages for employees, reduces returns or outcomes for another, such as owners or customers.

Triple bottom line

Reporting and decision-making across three dimensions: economic profit, social impact, and environmental impact, reflecting broader success than financial results alone.

Integration of concepts

Scholarship skill of combining ideas from several business functions, such as finance, operations, and marketing, to explain a single decision and its consequences.

Synthesis

Building a coherent argument by connecting evidence from the supplied context with business theory, rather than presenting separate, unlinked points.

Critical evaluation

Examining the assumptions and evidence behind a business decision, testing their validity, and comparing alternatives before reaching a reasoned judgement.

Trade-off

Accepting a disadvantage in one area to gain an advantage in another, such as lower short-term profit to fund investment in future capability.

Risk versus uncertainty

Risk involves outcomes with estimable probabilities; uncertainty involves outcomes whose likelihood cannot be reliably estimated, requiring different decision approaches.

Strategic fit

The degree to which a proposed action aligns with the business's objectives, resources, capabilities, and external environment, used as a criterion for judging options.

Evaluation criteria

Explicit standards such as profitability, liquidity, sustainability, stakeholder impact, or strategic fit, against which options are judged to reach a defensible conclusion.

Treaty of Waitangi considerations

In New Zealand business contexts, partnership principles of participation, protection, and partnership that may shape consultation, resource use, and stakeholder obligations.

Assumption testing

Identifying the beliefs a decision relies on and checking them against evidence, which strengthens Scholarship-level evaluation by exposing weak reasoning.