Business Economics is a branch of general economics that studies the foundations and mechanisms of the company's economic acts.
The object of this scientific discipline being the enterprise, it is advisable to specify
what this economic agent is.
In economic theory, the notion of enterprise corresponds to an entity whose function is to produce goods and services by combining factors.
There are, however, different conceptions of the business and different types.companies. The generally accepted definition of business and which found in the ECONOMIC LEXICONS is as follows: "The company is an autonomous economic unit, combining various
factors of production, producing goods and services for sale,and distributing income in return for the use of factors. "
In this sense, organizations with market activity constitute enterprises.
On the other hand, entities of a non-profit nature, those whose production is not not in principle intended for a solvent clientele, are not companies. It is the case of administrations, non-profit organizations in general, associations.
From the definition of the company, we can retain three aspects that it is necessary to explain. These aspects are:
1- The company, an economic computing center
2- The company, system ordered
3- The company as an organization
1. The company is an economic computing center
At the origin of the economic calculation lies the entrepreneur's desire to achieve a rational combination of factors of production. This by integrating the most possible the latest scientific and technological innovations aim to allow a better transformation of materials into goods and services of intermediate or final consumption in order to satisfy potential demand.
This presupposes a judicious choice of productive resources taking into account their
availability and cost of ownership. In short, the economic calculation is similar to an optimization computation under constraints: "search for the best production function, i.e. the one which, while minimizing production costs, maximizes the entrepreneur's objective and
in particular, the maximum profit drawn from the invested capital. "The economic calculation
is therefore both: an efficiency calculation: how to mobilize resources productive to achieve the objective (s) that we have fixed? (Produce and sell as much as possible to make the
invested capital), an efficiency calculation: how to achieve the objective (s) that we set ourselves by using the cheapest route? (save resources or control the costs of production).
2. The company is an ordered system
By presenting it as a system, it presupposes that the company is structure around a number of elements that maintain relationships necessary between them in order to ensure smooth operation of the production in its environment.
The system performs transformations and may change state during the time under the effect of environmental disturbances. As a system commissioned, the company has control units whose role is to decide on the actions to be carried out, to choose the methods, to set the objectives, to assess the results achieved. Ordered system or finalized system, the company works
in an uncertain environment which involves the notion of risk.
This risk can be linked to social, technological, economic,Politics. These possible and multiple disturbances of the environment imply that the system is equipped with forecasting organs and is capable of reacting to the unexpected. The system is therefore expected to be flexible.
3. The company is an organization
By this we mean a group of people who work together to achieve certain objectives with more or less limited means.
Members of the organization are governed in their behavior and in their function by a set of professional and social relations, a set of roles (position in the hierarchy), a set of standards (rules of conduct).
The organization chart of the company is a diagram by which we express the professional relations, roles, i.e. the organizational structure that has been put in place to carry out its activities.
The proper functioning of the organization supposes the resolution of three types of problems:
+: + a coordination problem: how to ensure the pursuit of objectives in common with the division of labor, the distribution of tasks?
+: + a communication problem - decision: from which network information will we make the decisions. How to ensure communication in the company?
+: + an animation problem: how to manage an integration process individual efficiency through increased competence and motivation of individuals to improve organizational effectiveness?
Since the economy and the organization of the company are two intimately related areas, we find ourselves in the presence of a teaching discipline
large enough, the content of which cannot be exhausted in one year, let alone in one semester as required by the official course allocation.
The lesson plan thus offered to second-year students is based on around a number of points considered essential. It remains understood that a broadening and deepening of this plan will be necessary for the undergraduate and postgraduate students