Assignment on The Business Environment

Introduction to Business
Handouts

Handout for Assignment 1.1: The Business Environment

Instructions: Complete the following activities and submit as directed by your instructor.

In a visual way, develop a timeline of the evolution of business in the United States.

You may be creative in this, but you must be able to submit your timeline electronically (in a Microsoft Office or other application).
For each era in the evolution of business, list at least two ways we have improved the way people do business now as compared with the previous era.

Select a business that you might be interested in starting at some point in your future career.

Describe the business in one or two sentences.
Describe the five factors of production for this business that are required for this business’s success. Limit your answers to one or two sentences for each factor.
Discuss briefly your thoughts about the potential supply and demand for your goods or services of this business.

For each of the six business environments, identify at least one potential problem that your business may face. Explain this problem in one or two sentences.

Complete the following table by identifying a specific business example and completing the remainder of the table. Do not use any example that was presented in the textbook.

Characteristic	Perfect Competition	Monopolistic Competition	Oligopoly	Monopoly
Business Example
Number of competitors (many, few, none, etc.)
Ease of industry into industry (easy – provide a brief explanation)
Similarity of goods or services offered by competing firms (identical, similar, or provide explanation)
Level of control over price by individual firms (none, some, considerable, high)

Introduction to Business Handout 1.1 Page 2 of 28/14/2019