Participative Management – Workers Participation in Management

Human Resource Management

Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Larry Page

Business Analysis

The Boundaryless Career: Modern Contemperory Perspective on Career

Human Resource Management

How to Meet Costa Rica’s 2026 VASP Requirements Without Expanding Headcount

General Business Articles

Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

Advantages of Budgetary Control

The following are some of the most significant advantages of budgetary control. Budgeting compels management to plan for the future, the budgeting forces management to look ahead and become more-effective and efficient in administering business operations. It instills into managers the habit of evaluating carefully their problems and related variables before making any decisions. Budgeting helps to coordinate, integrate, and balance the efforts of various departments in the light of the overall objectives of the enterprise. This results in goal congruency and harmony among the departments. Budgeting facilitates control by providing definite expectation on the planning phase that can be used as a frame of reference for judging subsequent performance. Undoubtedly, budgeted performance is a more important standard for comparison than past performance, since past performance is historical factors, which are constantly changing. Budgeting improves the quality of communication. The enterprise’s objectives, budget goals, plans, authority and responsibility and procedures Continue reading

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Pigovian Tax – Meaning and Definition

Neo-classicals uphold perfect competition as the ideal state of the market. But in truth, the economy is fraught with market failures. Therefore, we need government interference to correct many of these market failures. Pigovian Tax (also spelled  Pigouvian tax) imposed by the government is one such course of intervention. It helps to curb negative externalities (e.g. pollution) and reduce the burden on the society caused by the externalities (social costs of production and consumption). Moreover, it attacks over-consumption, bringing it closer to the socially optimal level of production and/or consumption. What is Pigovian Tax? Pigovian tax is a kind of tax, which is levied to correct a negative cost that is created by the actions of any business firm, but that is not considered in a firm’s private costs or profits. Also known as ‘sin tax’, it is a tax placed on an action with a negative externality, to correct Continue reading

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Trends in Retail Formats

Retail industry is continuously going through changes on account of liberalization, globalization and consumer preferences. While multinational retail chains are looking for new markets, manufacturers are identifying, redefining, or evolving new retail formats. The existing retail houses are also gearing up to face the emerging competition from the organized sector and the changing outlook of the consumers. For example, consumer spending is shifting from goods to services. Accordingly the retailers too are fast adjusting to the changing consumer preferences. Consumers are not only looking for the core products or functional benefits from the retailers but also the non-functional benefits, which need to be compatible with their lifestyles. For example, most of the traditional eating joints in India such as Haldiram, Bikaner and Sagar Ratna have revised their product offerings and atmospherics on the lines of the multinational chains to compete with them and to serve changed expectations of the consumers. Continue reading

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Golden Rules for Building Retail Displays

It goes without saying that the displays play very significant role in retailing and retail outlet. An attractive and informative displays can help in large volume of sales in terms of goods and services. In building a retail display, some fundamental rules should be followed to get best out of these where good deal of treasure, talent and time is involved on the part of retailer. This  golden rules are: 1. Achieve Balance It is important to make sure that the display appears balanced to the viewer, in building display. This is achieved by arranging products and props in a particular way. A display may have formal or informal balance. “Formal” balance is achieved by balancing on each side of the center one more or more similar items. “Informal” balance is achieved by balancing on opposite sides of the  center  dissimilar items. The effects produced by informal balance are less Continue reading

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Business Benefits of ERP Systems

Recommended reading: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Definition Installing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system has many advantages-both direct and indirect. The direct advantages include improved efficiency, information integration for better decision making, faster response time to customer queries, etc. The indirect benefits include better corporate image, improved customer goodwill, customer satisfaction, and so on. The following are some of the direct benefits of an ERP system: Business Integration Flexibility Better Analysis and Planning Capabilities Use of Latest Technology. Business Integration: The first and most important advantage lies in the promotion of integration. The reason why ERP packages are considered to the integrated, is the automatic data updating (automatic data exchange among applications) that is possible among the related business components. Since conventional company information systems were aimed at the optimization of independent business functions in business units, almost all were weak in terms of the communication and integration of information Continue reading

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Principal-Agent Problem – Overview, Examples and Solutions

The significant discussion in business economics is principal-agent problems in organizations. A principal is a top authority who hires agents to act on his/her behalf, while an agent usually aims to achieve the objectives of the principal. A principal-agent problem arises when the activities of an agent impact on the principal’s interests. Although agents may seek to attain the goals set by principals but may sometimes fail to carry out those targets. The conflict between shareholders (as principals) and managers (as agents) is a good example of principal-agent problem. When ownership and control is divided between the principals and agents in an organisations this gives the agents opportunity to pursue the goals that may not agree with the desires of the principals. A lot of principal-agent relationships may be found in human society such as patients and doctors, shareholders and managers, managers and workers. But shareholder-manager and manager-workers are the Continue reading

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