List of (0450) IGCSE Business Studies Past Year Papers Downloads

1.1 Business activity

1.1.1 The purpose and nature of business activity:
• Concepts of needs, wants, scarcity and opportunity cost
• Significance of specialisation
• Purpose of business activity
• The idea of adding value and how added value can be improved or increased

1.2 Classification of businesses

1.2.1 Business activity in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors:
• Basis of business classification, using examples to illustrate the grouping or classification
• Reasons for the changing importance of business grouping or classification, e.g. in developed and developing economies

1.2.2 Classify business enterprises between private sector and public sector in a mixed economy

1.3 Enterprise, business growth and size

1.3.1 Enterprise and entrepreneurship:
• Characteristics or traits of successful entrepreneurs
• Contents of a business plan and how business plans support entrepreneurs
• Why and how governments support business start-ups, e.g. subsidies, grants, training schemes is needed to know when doing these 0450 IGCSE Business Studies past year papers 

1.3.2 The ways and problems of measuring business size:
• Methods of measuring business size, e.g. number of people employed, value of output, capital employed (profit is not a method of measuring business size)
• Limitations of each methods of measuring business size will also be examined in these 0450 IGCSE Business Studies past year papers

1.3.3 Why some businesses grow and others remain small:
• Reasons the owners of a business may want to expand their business
• Different ways in which businesses can grow or expand
• Problems linked to business growth and how these might be overcome
• Why some businesses remain small

1.3.4 Why some (new or established) businesses fail:
• Reasons of business failure, e.g. absence of management skills, changes in the business environment, cash flow or liquidity problems
• Reasons new businesses are at a greater risk of failing

1.4 Types of business organisation

1.4.1 The key features of different forms of business organisation:
• Sole proprietor, partnerships, private and public limited companies, franchises and joint ventures
• Differences between unincorporated businesses and limited companies
• The ideas of risk, ownership and limited liability
• Recommend and justify a suitable form of business organisation to owners or management in a given situation or scenario
• Business organisations in the public sector, e.g. public corporations or state-owned enterprise

1.5 Business objectives and stakeholder objectives

1.5.1 Businesses can have several objectives and the importance of them can change:
• Need for business objectives and the importance of them
• Different business objectives, e.g. survival, growth, profit and market share
• Objectives of social enterprises

1.5.2 The purpose or role of stakeholder groups involved in business activity:
• Main internal and external stakeholder groups
• Objectives of different stakeholder groups
• How these objectives might conflict with each other, use examples

1.5.3 Differences in the objectives of private sector and public sector enterprises

2.1 Motivating employees

2.1.1 The significance of a well-motivated workforce:
• Why people work and what is meant by motivation
• The advantages of a well-motivated workforce in relation to labour productivity, reduced absenteeism and labour turnover
• The concept of human needs, e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Key motivational theories: Taylor and Herzberg theory

2.1.2 Methods of motivation:
• Financial rewards, e.g. wage, salary, bonus, commission and profit sharing
• Non-financial reward, e.g. job enrichment, job rotation, team working, training, opportunities for promotion
• Recommend and justify appropriate method or way(s) of motivation in given circumstances

2.2 Organisation and management

2.2.1 Draw, interpret and understand simple organisational charts:
• Simple hierarchical structures: levels of hierarchy, chain of command, span of control
• Roles and responsibilities of directors, managers and employees in an organisation and inter-relationships between them

2.2.2 The role of management:
• Functions of management, e.g. planning, organising, coordinating, commanding and controlling
• Importance of delegation; trust (flexibility) versus control

2.2.3 Leadership styles:
• Characteristics or features of the main leadership styles, e.g. autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire
• Recommend and justify an appropriate leadership style in given scenario

2.2.4 Trade unions:
• What is meant by a trade union is and the consequences of employees being union members

2.3 Recruitment, selection and training of employees

2.3.1 Recruitment and selecting employees:
• Recruitment and selection methods
• Difference between internal recruitment and external recruitment
• Main stages in recruitment and selection of employees
• Recommend and justify who to employ in given circumstances
• Advantages and disadvantages of part-time employees and full-time employees

2.3.2 The importance of training and the methods of training:
• Significance of training to a business and to employees
• Advantages and disadvantages of induction training, on-the-job training and off-the-job training

2.3.3 Why reducing the size of the workforce might be necessary:
• Difference between redundancy and dismissal
• Appreciate situations in which downsizing the workforce might be necessary, e.g. automation, reduced demand for products,
• Recommend and justify which employees to make redundant in given circumstances

2.3.4 Legal controls over employment issues and their implications on employers and employees:
• Legal controls over employment contracts, unfair dismissal, discrimination, health and safety, legal minimum wage

2.4 Internal and external communication

2.4.1 Why effective communication is importance and the ways used to achieve it:
• Effective communication and its importance to business
• Benefits and limitations of different communication methods. These IGCSE Business Studies past year papers will also include those based on information technology (IT)
• Recommend and justify which communication method to use in given scenarios

2.4.2 Demonstrate an awareness of communication barriers:
• Explain how communication barriers arise and problems of ineffective communication and how communication barriers can be reduced or removed

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3.1 Marketing, competition and the customer

3.1.1 The role of marketing:
• Identifying and satisfying customer needs
• Retaining or maintaining customer loyalty
• Building customer relationships

3.1.2 Market changes:
• Explain why customer or consumer spending patterns may change
• The significance of changing customer needs
• Why some industry or markets have become more competitive will be tested when attempting these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers
• How businesses can react to changing spending patterns and increased competition

3.1.3 Concepts of niche (or focus) marketing and mass marketing:
• Advantages and disadvantages of both approaches to marketing

3.1.4 How and why market segmentation is undertaken:
• How market segmentation can be done, e.g. age, socio-economic grouping, location, gender, income level
• Potential advantages of segmentation to business in market research
• Recommend and justify an appropriate method of segmentation in given circumstances

3.2 Market research

3.2.1 The role of market research and methods used:
• Market-orientated businesses (uses of market research information to a business)
• Primary research and secondary research (benefits and limitations of each)
• Methods of primary research, e.g. postal questionnaire, online survey, interviews, focus groups
• The need for sampling
• Methods of secondary research, e.g. online, accessing government sources, paying for commercial market research reports
• Factors influencing the accuracy of market research data

3.2.2 Presentation and use of market research results:
• Analyse market research data shown in the form of graphs, charts and diagrams; draw simple conclusions from such data

3.3 Marketing mix

3.3.1 Product:
• The costs and benefits of developing new products
• Brand image; impact on sales and customer loyalty
• The role of packaging
• The product life cycle: main stages and extension strategies; draw and interpret a product life cycle diagram
• How stages of the product life cycle can influence marketing decisions, e.g. promotion and pricing decisions will be asked in these 0450 IGCSE Business Studies past year papers

3.3.2 Price:
• Pricing methods (benefits and limitations of different methods), e.g. cost plus, competitive, penetration, skimming, dynamic and promotional
• Recommend and justify an appropriate pricing method in given circumstances
• Understand the importance of price elasticity: difference between price elastic demand and price inelastic demand; importance of the concept in pricing decisions (knowledge of the formula and calculations of PED will not be assessed in these 0450 IGCSE Business Studies past year papers)

3.3.3 Place (distribution channels):
• Advantages and disadvantages of different channels
• Recommend and justify an appropriate distribution channel in given circumstances

3.3.4 Promotion:
• The main objectives of promotion
• Different types of promotion and how they influence and affect sales, e.g. advertising, sales promotion
• The need for cost-effectiveness in spending the marketing budget on promotion

3.3.5 Technology and the marketing mix:
• Explain and discuss the concept of e-commerce
• The opportunities and challenges of e-commerce to business and consumers
• Use of the internet and social media networks for promotion

3.4 Marketing strategy

3.4.1 Justify marketing strategies suitable to a given situation:
• Importance of different elements of the marketing mix in influencing consumer decisions in given circumstances
• Recommend and justify an appropriate marketing strategy in given circumstances

3.4.2 The nature and impact of legal controls related to marketing:
• Impact of legal controls on marketing strategy, e.g. misleading promotion, faulty and dangerous goods will be tested when doing these 0450 IGCSE Business Studies past year papers

3.4.3 The opportunities and challenges of entering new foreign markets:
• Growth potential of new markets in other countries
• Problems of entering foreign markets, e.g. political condition, cultural differences and lack of knowledge
• Benefits and limitations of methods to overcome such challenges, e.g. joint ventures, licensing

4.1 Production of goods and services

4.1.1 The meaning of production:
• Handling resources effectively to produce goods and services
• Difference between production and productivity
• Benefits of increasing efficiency and how to improve it, e.g. increasing productivity by automation and technology, improved labour skills
• Reasons why businesses hold and do not hold inventories
• The lean production concept: how to achieve it, e.g. just-in-time inventory control and Kaizen; benefits of lean production

4.1.2 The key methods of production:
• Characteristics, features, benefits and limitations of job, batch and flow production
• Recommend and justify an appropriate production method for a given situation

4.1.3 How technology has changed manufacturing or production methods, e.g. using computers in design and manufacturing (CDM)

4.2 Costs, scale of production and break-even analysis

4.2.1 Identify and classify costs:
• Classifying costs into fixed, variable, average, total cost
• Use cost data and information to help make simple cost-based decisions, e.g. to stop production or continue

4.2.2 Economies of scale and diseconomies of scale:
• The concept of economies of scale with examples, e.g. purchasing, marketing, financial, managerial, technical will be examined when doing these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers
• The concept of diseconomies of scale with examples, e.g. poor communication, lack of commitment from employees, weak coordination

4.2.3 Break-even analysis:
• The break-even analysis concept
• Construct, complete or amend a simple break-even chart
• Define, calculate, explain and interpret the margin of safety
• Use break-even analysis to help make simple decisions, e.g. impact of higher price
• Understand the limitations of break-even analysis
• Interpret a given chart and use it to analyse a situation
• Calculate break-even output from given data

4.3 Achieving quality production

4.3.1 Why quality is important and how quality production might be achieved:
• What quality means and why it is important for all businesses
• The concept of quality control and how businesses implement quality control
• The concept of quality assurance and how this can be implemented

4.4 Location decisions

4.4.1 The main factors influencing the location and relocation decisions of a business:
• Issues and factors relevant to the location decision of manufacturing businesses and service businesses
• Issues and factors that a business could consider when deciding which country to locate operations in
• The role of legal controls on location decisions needs to be understood when attempting these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers
• Recommend and justify an appropriate location for a business in given circumstances

5.1 Business finance: needs and sources

5.1.1 The need for business finance:
• The main causes why businesses need finance, e.g. start-up capital, additional working capital and capital for expansion
• Understand the difference between short-term and long-term finance needs

5.1.2 The main sources of finance:
• Internal sources and external sources (with examples)
• Short-term and long-term sources (with examples) e.g. overdraft for short-term finance and debt or equity for long-term finance
• Importance of different sources of capital, e.g. micro-finance, crowd-funding, bank loans
• The main aspects considered in making the financial choice or decision, e.g. size and legal form of business, amount required, length of time, existing loans
• Recommend and justify appropriate source(s) of finance in given circumstances

5.2 Cash-flow forecasting and working capital

5.2.1 The importance of cash and of cash-flow forecasting:
• Explain reason why cash is important to a business
• Describe what is cash-flow forecast, and how a simple one is prepared and the importance of it
• Change or complete a simple cash-flow forecast
• How to analyse and interpret a simple cash-flow forecast
• How a short-term cash-flow problem might be overcome, e.g. delaying payments, asking debtors to pay more quickly, increasing loans, delay purchase of non-current asset

5.2.2 Working capital:

The concept and significance of working capital (also known as net current asset)

5.3 Income statements

5.3.1 What profit is and why it is important:
• How a profit is made
• Importance of profit to private sector businesses, e.g. reward for risk-taking (enterprise), source of finance and more will be examined when doing IGCSE Business Studies past year papers
• Difference between cash flow and profit

5.3.2 Income statements:
• Main characteristics of an income statement, e.g. revenue, cost of sales, gross profit, net profit for the year and retained profit
• Use simple income statements in decision-making based on profit calculations (constructing income statements will not be assessed when doing these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers)

5.4 Statement of financial position

5.4.1 The main components of a statement of financial position:
• The main classifications of assets and liabilities, using examples of each components

5.4.2 Analyse and interpret a simple statement of financial position and make deductions from it, e.g. how a business is financing its activities and what assets it owns, sale of inventories to raise finance (the constructing statements of financial position will not be assessed when attempting these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers)

5.5 Analysis of accounts

5.5.1 Profitability:
• The idea and significance of profitability

5.5.2 Liquidity:
• The idea and significance of liquidity

5.5.3 How to analyse and interpret the financial performance of a business by calculating and analysing profitability ratios and liquidity ratios:
• Gross profit margin
• Profit margin
• Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
• Current ratio
• Quick ratio (Acid test ratio)

5.5.4 Why and how accounts are used:
• Explain the needs of different users of accounts and ratio analysis
• How users of accounts and ratio results might use information to help make decisions

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6.1 Economic issues

6.1.1 Business cycle:
• Main stages of the business cycle, e.g. growth, boom, recession, slump
• Implication on businesses of changes in employment levels, inflation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the economy

6.1.2 How government intervene and control over the economy affects business activity and how businesses may respond or react:
• Identify government economic objectives, e.g. reduce inflation rate, reduce unemployment, and increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Impact of changes in taxes and government spending on business
• Impact of changes in interest rates on business and borrowing cost
• How businesses might react or respond to these changes

6.2 Environmental and ethical issues

6.2.1 Environmental concerns and ethical issues as both opportunities and threat for businesses:
• How business activity can impact on the environment, e.g. global warming
• The concept of externalities: possible external costs (negative externalities) and external benefits of business decisions
• Sustainable development; how business activity can contribute to this
• How and why business might respond to environmental pressures and opportunities, e.g. pressure groups and government
• The role of legal controls over business activity affecting the environment, e.g. pollution controls and congestion controls
• Ethical issues or problem a business might face: conflicts between profits and ethics
• Explain how business might respond to ethical issues, e.g. child labour, discrimation

6.3 Business and the international economy

6.3.1 The importance of globalisation:
• The concept of globalisation and its importance
• Opportunities and threats of globalisation for businesses
• Why governments might introduce import tariffs, import quotas or other trade barriers

6.3.2 Explanations for the significance and growth of multinational companies (MNCs):
• Benefits to a business of becoming a multinational (or go global) and the impact on its stakeholders
• Potential benefits to a country and/or economy where a MNC is located in terms of jobs, exports, increased choice, investment will be examined in these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers
• Potential limitations to a country and/or economy where a MNC is located in terms of reduced sales of local businesses, repatriation of profits

6.3.3 The impact of exchange rate changes:
• Depreciation and appreciation of an exchange rate of home or foreign currency
• How exchange rate changes can affect businesses as importers and exporters of products in relation to prices, competitiveness and profitability (in these IGCSE Business Studies past year papers, exchange rate calculations will not be assessed)