The Buying Decision Process: Stages

These are the operating phases involved in a new buying situation. In repurchase scenarios, whether modified or direct, some of these stages are reduced or omitted.

1. Identification of the Problem

Someone within the company becomes aware of a problem or need that can be met by purchasing a good or service. This realization occurs through internal or external stimuli.

2. General Need Description

This stage involves describing the general characteristics, required quantity, and timing of the need.

3. Product Specification

The buying organization decides and specifies the optimal technical features of the product. Sometimes, a team is assigned to conduct a value analysis, carefully studying the most important components... Continue reading "Organizational Buying Decision Process Stages" »

Components of Economic Policy

Tax Policy

Tax policy is an essential tool to facilitate growth, investment, and social balance. It is a key concern for the Government.

Exchange Policy

Exchange policy is the joint action implemented by the monetary authority to establish or manage the exchange rate parity.

Interest Rate

The interest rate is the percentage applied to a sum of money (capital) and is equivalent to the amount to be paid or charged for loaning or borrowing money.

Money Supply

The money supply is the principal variable used. It is the amount of money circulating in the economy to move the commercial and financial transactions of society. It is the package of cash circulating in the economy and serves to cherish and value, deferring future... Continue reading "Understanding Economic Policy: Key Components and Mechanisms" »

Long-Term Leasing and Renting

Leasing financing is a system whereby a company can incorporate fixed assets in exchange for lease fees. This process involves three operators: the client who needs the asset, the leasing firm that finances the acquisition and delivers the asset to the customer company in exchange for rent, and the company that manufactured or provides the asset.

Renting is the rental of movable and immovable property under a long-term contract. The tenant agrees to pay a fixed monthly income for a specified period. The leasing company is committed to providing these services: facilitating the use of the asset, maintenance, comprehensive insurance, and the option of ending the contract, replacing the equipment, or renewing the contract.... Continue reading "Corporate Financing Methods and Securities" »

Matching Terms with Definitions

Match the following terms with their definitions:

1. Value of Land (Income Economics): The value of land increases over time depending on location.
2. Oligopoly: Producers collaborate to maximize profits.
3. Wage Theory: Individuals are compensated based on the value of their marginal product.
4. Price Theory: Characterized by product differentiation and sales promotion.
5. Monopolistic Competition: Considers both supply and demand factors.
6. Monopoly: Market power is often measured using the concentration ratio.
7. Dumping: Selling goods produced domestically at a lower price in foreign markets.
8. Scope Economics: Combining two or more lines of production within a business.
9. Perfect Competition: Prices are determined by the interaction of supply

The Prisoner's Dilemma

The Prisoner's Dilemma is a concept in game theory based on two assumptions:

1. Each player has an incentive to choose an alternative that benefits them but hurts the other player.
2. When both players act in that way, they end up in a worse situation than if they had chosen different alternatives.

Dominant Strategy

A dominant strategy is the best decision an individual can make, regardless of the decision taken by the other player. Not all games have a dominant strategy; it depends on the game's payoff structure. In the Prisoner's Dilemma, a dominant strategy exists (to confess). As long as the two prisoners cannot agree *not* to confess (something that cannot be maintained while incommunicado), they will both act against each... Continue reading "Prisoner's Dilemma, Nash Equilibrium & Oligopoly" »

Understanding Business Legal Forms in Spain

When establishing a business in Spain, selecting the appropriate legal form is a critical decision. This choice impacts various aspects, including capital requirements, liability, taxation, and social security obligations. Below is a comparative overview of common Spanish business structures.

Sole Trader (Autónomo)

• Minimum Members: 1 (the individual entrepreneur)
• Capital Requirement: No minimum initial capital required
• Liability: Unlimited (personal assets are not protected)
• Taxation: Personal Income Tax (IRPF)
• Social Security Regime: Special Regime for Self-Employed (RETA)
• Key Characteristics:
  • Simplest form to establish.
  • Direct management by the individual.

Community of Property (Comunidad de Bienes - CB)

• Minimum

Understanding Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics focuses on the study of the economic situation nationally and internationally. This branch of economics is not primarily interested in individual consumer behavior, but rather in how the consumption of the entire population evolves. From the macroeconomic point of view, the production of a single company is not as important as the total set of all goods and services produced within a country. It developed after the crisis of the 1930s, following the work of John Maynard Keynes, who argued that the state should intervene in the economy to address serious problems such as unemployment.

National Product

National Product is the total set of goods and services generated by the companies of a country.

Gross

Purchase Price & Cost of Production

Purchase price: Is the total amount of the purchase, including all expenses related to the acquisition operation (transport, insurance, packaging, etc.).

Cost of production: Is the sum of all costs required to manufacture a product, such as labor, raw materials, or energy consumption.

This company knows, at every moment, the value of what has come to stores. This control is a tool that performs using an existence control tab, which is a document that registers, for each type of existence and valuation, a detailed timeline of entries and exits of the store.

Criteria for Valuation of Stocks

The criteria for the valuation of stocks are different ways how a company can economically evaluate the inventory and control... Continue reading "Purchase Price & Cost of Production: Inventory Valuation" »

Glossary of Economic Terms

A

Autarchy

A system of a state that intends to be economically self-sufficient and could be met from its own resources, eliminating imports.

B

Balance of Payments

An account that records transactions and international economic transactions made by a country for a year.

C

Constitution

The fundamental law of a state's organization. The first written constitution was in the U.S. and is still in force. In Spain, the first Constitutional text was drafted by the Cortes of Cadiz in 1812.

Corporatism

Political and economic doctrines advocating the integration of workers and employers in the same occupation into a single organization.

D

Deficit

A situation that occurs in an account, budget, etc., when costs outweigh gains.

Deflation

When... Continue reading "Glossary of Economic Terms: Autarchy, Balance of Payments, and More" »

State Intervention in the Economy

State intervention in the economy is justified in two ways:

1. The market mechanism generates a combination unwanted by society.
2. The existence of so-called market failures.

Market failure occurs when the intervention generates the same market imperfections, preventing optimal results. Main market failures:

• Existence of public goods: These goods are characterized because the consumption of one individual does not cause exclusion from the consumption of other individuals.
• Existence of imperfectly competitive markets (monopolies, oligopolies, and monopolistic competition): The fundamental characteristic of this market is the ability of companies to influence the market price. The state tries to make such markets disappear