| A | B |
|---|
| E-business (electronic business) | The organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for a profit, the goods and services that satisfy society’s needs through the facilities available on the Internet |
| E-commerce | Buying and selling activities conducted online |
| Outsourcing | The process of finding outside vendors and suppliers that provide professional help, parts, or materials at a lower cost |
| Revenue Stream | A source of revenue flowing into a firm |
| World Wide Web (the web) | The Internet’s multimedia environment of audio, visual and text data |
| Digitized | Data that have been converted to a type of signal that computers and telecommunications equipment that make up the Internet can understand |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | Provide customers with a connection to the Internet through various phone plugs and cables |
| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software | Software solutions that incorporate a variety of methods that can be used to manage communication with customers and share important information with all of a firm’s employees |
| Supply-Chain Management (SCM) Software | Software solutions that focus on ways to improve communication between the suppliers and users of materials and components |
| E-zines | Small online magazines |
| Business Model | Represents a group of common characteristics and methods of doing business to generate sales revenues and reduce expenses |
| Business-to-Business (B2B) Model | Firms that conduct business with other businesses |
| Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model | Firms that focus on conducting business with individual buyers |
| Cookie | A small piece of software sent by a website that tracks an individual’s Internet use |
| Log-File Records | Files that store a record of the websites visited |
| Data Mining | The practice of searching through data records looking for useful information |
| Computer Viruses | Software codes that are designed to disrupt normal computer operations |
| Spamming | The sending of massive amounts of unsolicited e-mail |
| Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) | An encryption process developed by MasterCard, Visa, IBM, Microsoft, and Netscape that prevents merchants from ever actually seeing any transaction data, including the customer’s credit-card number |
| Copyright | Legal right to control content ownership |
| Convergence of Technologies | The overlapping of capabilities and the merging of products and services into one fully integrated interactive system |
| Online Communities | Groups of individuals or firms that want to exchange information, products, or services over the Internet |
| Sole Proprietorship | A business that is owned (and usually operated) by one person |
| Unlimited Liability | A legal concept that holds a business owner personally responsible for all the debts of the business |
| Partnership | A voluntary association of two or more persons to act as co-owners of a business for profit |
| General Partner | A person who assumes full or shared responsibility for operating a business |
| General Partnership | A business co-owned by two or more general partners who are liable for everything the business does |
| Limited Partner | A person who contributes capital to a business but has no management responsibility or liability for losses beyond the amount he or she invested in the partnership |
| Limited Partnership | A business co-owned by one or more general partners who manage the business and limited partners who invest money in it |
| Master Limited Partnership (MLP) | A business partnership that is owned and managed like a corporation but often taxed like a partnership |
| Corporation | An artificial person created by law with most of the legal rights of a real person, including the rights to start and operate a business, to buy or sell property, to borrow money, to sue or be sued, and to enter into binding contracts |
| Stock | The shares of ownership of a corporation |
| Stockholder | A person who owns a corporation’s stock |
| Closed Corporation | A corporation whose stock is owned by relatively few people and is not sold to the general public |
| Open Corporation | A corporation whose stock can be bought and sold by any individual |
| Domestic Corporation | A corporation in the state in which it is incorporated |
| Foreign Corporation | A corporation in any state in which it does business except the one in which it is incorporated |
| Alien Corporation | A corporation chartered by a foreign government and conducting business in the United States |
| Corporate Charter | A contract between a corporation and the state in which the state recognizes the formation of the artificial person that is the corporation |
| Common Stock | Stock owned by individuals or firms who may vote on corporate matters but whose claims on profit and assets are subordinate to the claims of others |
| Preferred Stock | Stock owned by individuals or firms who usually do not have voting rights but whose claims on dividends are paid before those of common-stock owners |
| Dividend | A distribution of earnings to the stockholders of a corporation |
| Proxy | A legal form listing issues to be decided at a stockholders’ meeting and enabling stockholders to transfer their voting rights to some other individual or individuals |
| Board of Directors | The top governing body of a corporation, the members of which are elected by the stockholders |
| Corporate Officers | The chairman of the board, president, executive vice presidents, corporate secretary, treasurer, and any other top executive appointed by the board of director |
| Limited Liability | A feature of corporate ownership that limits each owner’s financial liability to the amount of money that he or she has paid for the corporation’s stock |
| S-Corporation | A corporation that is taxed as though it were a partnership |
| Limited-Liability Company (LLC) | A form of business ownership that combines the benefits of a corporation and a partnership while avoiding some of the restrictions and disadvantages of those forms of ownership |
| Government-Owned Corporation | A corporation owned and operated by a local, state, or federal government |
| Not-for-Profit Corporation | A corporation organized to provide a social, educational, religious, or other service rather than to earn a profit |
| Cooperative | An association of individuals or firms whose purpose is to perform some business function for its members |
| Joint Venture | An agreement between two or more groups to form a business entity in order to achieve a specific goal or to operate for a specific period of time |
| Syndicate | A temporary association of individuals or firms organized to perform a specific task that requires a large amount of capital |
| Merger | The purchase of one corporation by another |
| Hostile Takeover | A situation in which the management and board of directors of a firm targeted for acquisition disapproved of the merger |
| Tender Offer | An offer to purchase the stock of a firm targeted for acquisition at a price just high enough to tempt stockholders to sell their shares |
| Proxy Fight | A technique used to gather enough stock-holder votes to control a targeted company |
| Leveraged Buyout (LBO) | A purchase arrangement that allows a firm’s managers and employees or a group of investors to purchase the company |
