The external business environment: SQA Advanced Higher Business Management quiz quiz

The integration of national economies into a single, interdependent world market

A firm selling only in its home country

The closing of borders to trade

A government tax on imports

Higher tariffs on all imports

The closing of economies such as China

More expensive transport

Trade liberalisation cutting tariffs and quotas

It exports goods abroad

It is the largest firm in its home country

It owns or controls operations in more than one country

It is owned by a foreign government

The country where it is headquartered

The country that taxes it least

Its largest shareholder's country

A country it invests into and operates in

More jobs

Transfer of skills and technology

Profits often repatriated to the home country rather than reinvested

Improved infrastructure

Buying an existing foreign firm

Forming a jointly owned company with a partner

Exporting from the home base

Building new facilities from scratch in the foreign country

It gives the firm full control and all the profit

It carries the highest cost and risk

A local partner shares cost and risk and supplies market knowledge

It avoids the foreign market entirely

By paying all tax in the highest-tax country

By charging a high internal price from a low-tax unit to a high-tax unit, shifting profit to the low-tax country

By refusing to trade between its own divisions

By raising the prices it charges final customers

Internal prices must match what unconnected firms would charge each other

All transfers must be free of charge

Profit must be taxed only in the home country

Internal prices must be as high as possible

A single large multinational

A government department that sets tariffs

A group of countries that agree to trade freely with each other

A ban on all international trade

A benefit that lowers its costs

A barrier that makes its exports into the bloc dearer

Irrelevant to its trade

A subsidy from the bloc

A vast, fast-growing consumer market and low-cost production base

Guaranteed freedom from competition

No regulation or political risk

Automatic protection of intellectual property

Cleaning a firm's premises sustainably

Presenting a firm as more ethical or environmentally friendly than it actually is

A government environmental tax

Recycling all packaging

Consumers and investors increasingly reward responsible firms and misconduct is exposed quickly

Regulation on emissions and labour has been removed

Customers no longer care about ethics

Social media has made firms harder to scrutinise

Government spending on public services

Corporation tax rates

Tariffs on imports

Interest rates set by the central bank

Swings sharply with the business cycle

Disappears entirely in a boom

Depends only on interest rates

Is relatively stable across the cycle, like food or utilities

Lower unit costs from automation

Heavy investment that can become obsolete, plus job disruption and cyber risk

Wider global reach through e-commerce

Better data for decision-making

A long list of advantages and disadvantages

Defining the concept and stopping there

Developing points, weighing costs against benefits for the specific firm, and judging

Describing each source in turn