GCSE Business: Global Business and the Economy

This material covers the outside forces a business cannot control but must respond to, taking up the parts of the DfE GCSE subject content for business on external influences not already practised elsewhere in this category. These are the impact of globalisation and how businesses compete internationally, the wider economic climate, and the impact of legislation.

Globalisation is treated as both an opportunity and a threat: export markets and cheaper suppliers on one side, overseas competitors in the home market on the other. You work out what a tariff adds to the cost of an import and who gains and loses from it: the importer, the UK producer, and the UK manufacturer that buys the taxed goods as a raw material. Quotas and trade blocs are defined and applied (for example Pearson Edexcel, topic 2.1.3). Multinationals are examined from the point of view of the town where they open a factory, and moving production abroad is weighed against slower delivery, quality control and the risk to a firm's ethical reputation. Competing abroad means adapting the marketing mix to local tastes.

The economic climate section covers inflation, rising unemployment and a rise in VAT, with each one traced through to a business's costs, prices, demand and recruitment. The legislation questions stay general: a false product description under consumer law, health and safety failures, and what breaking the law costs a business in fines, compensation and reputation.

The quiz has twelve questions and the flashcards hold the terms. The written work has eight tasks, including a tariff calculation followed by an analysis of the business's options, and a justified decision on moving production abroad. In the oral exam the examiner asks one question at a time and ends with short feedback. The material is practice written by Zestly and is independent of any exam board.

• Explain globalisation and its opportunities and threats for UK businesses
• Calculate the effect of a tariff on the cost of an import and explain who gains and who loses
• Explain quotas and trade blocs and their effect on businesses inside and outside a bloc
• Evaluate the impact of multinationals on host countries and of moving production abroad
• Explain how UK businesses compete internationally by adapting the marketing mix
• Analyse the effects of inflation, unemployment, taxation and legislation on businesses

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE subject content for business (December 2015: influences on business: globalisation, the economic climate, legislation) and, for example, Pearson Edexcel GCSE Business topics 1.5.3, 1.5.4 and 2.1.3 and AQA GCSE Business 3.2.3–3.2.5.