企业结构与国际贸易

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The Structure of Firms and Internal Environment

• structure of firms
  • definition
    • Organisations exist to add value to inputs and create outputs that consumers will purchase
    • There are many different types of products, services and consumers
    • Therefore, different types of organisations exist to fulfill customers requirements, deal with differences in supply etc
  • classification for organizations
    • Size
    • Ownership
    • Legal form
      • Sole Trader (Not a legal form)
        • Most basic form of organisation
        • Not a legal form of organisation – the individual and the organisation are indistinguishable
        • Individual is responsible financially and legally for any debts, outstanding unfulfilled contracts etc.
        • Liability for the above is unlimited
          • If the business owes money and there is insufficient money in the business itself, then the private individual is liable
        • Very easy to establish
        • Difficult to know how many organisations exist; in the UK, VAT (Value-Added Tax) returns are used to measure the number
        • No obligation to file annual accounts
        • Sole trader can have employees (despite the name)
        • Many fail after a short time due to their lack of management expertise and access to financial resources
        • Examples – hairdressers, newsagents, window cleaners
      • Partnerships
        • Two or more people combine resources and form a partnership
        • In the UK, The Partnership Act 1890 defines a partnership as “the relation which subsists between persons carrying on a business with a view to profit”
        • Contract exists between the two parties, terms include:
          • The amount of capital subscribed by each partner
          • How profits will be determined and allocated between partners
          • Salary allocation for the partners
          • Procedure for dissolving the partnership
        • Prior to 2000, partnerships did not have a legal entity and therefore each partner had unlimited liability (as with the sole trader)
        • Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000
          • Allows limited liability to partnerships in specific circumstances
          • Examples – solicitors, accountants etc.
      • Limited companies
        • Limited in this instance meaning that the owners no longer have unlimited liability for the debts of their companies
        • This is covered in the UK by the Companies Act 2006
        • In the US, these are known as incorporated companies(股份有限公司）
        • Creating the limited company in the UK Two legal documents required:
          • Memorandum of Association（公司章程、公会规约）
            • Name of the company – must end in Limited (for the UK)
            • A statement regarding the limited liability of the owners, including whether they would be responsible for any outstanding debts if the company was wound up
            • Objects clause（目的条约） – “this specifies the scope within which the company can exercise its separate legal personality”
            • Regulates the company’s association with the outside world
          • Articles of Association（公司章程）
            • Regulates the internal administration of the company
            • This includes elements such as
              • Issue and transfer of shares
              • Rights of shareholders
              • Meetings of members
              • Appointment of directors
              • Procedures for producing and auditing accounts
          • 在英美法国家或地区，公司有两份章程性文件，即Memorandum of Association和Articles of Association，共同简称为M&AA，前者一般译为组织大纲，是公司注册时向政府注册机构提交的公司章程，其内容比较简单，通常只包括公司名称、公司组织形式、公司注册地址、股份数额、股票种类等基本信息，有些国家只需公示这份文件，后者一般译为章程，主要规定公司的治理规则，侧重于公司内部规章。
        • Company administration
          • All companies have directors（董事） who are selected by the shareholders to run the company
          • All companies must have a secretary who is responsible for specific tasks including filing reports and accounts with the Register of Companies
        • Shareholders（股东）
          • Own the company, therefore can exercise control over it
        • Company reports and accounts
          • The annual report has to be produced
          • All companies that have a share capital must make a return to the Register of Companies
          • This includes an audited Balance Sheet（经审计的资产负债表）and Profit and Loss account（损益账户） that gives a true representation of the transactions（交易） for that year
        • Liquidation and receivership (清算和接管）
          • Liquidation - ”termination of a business operation by using its assets to discharge its liabilities”
            • 清算-以其资产清偿负债终止业务
          • Receivership（破产接管） – “a court action that places property under the control of a receiver during litigation（法律诉讼） so that it can be preserved for the benefit of all”
            • the state of property that is in the hands of a receiver; "the business is in receivership"
      • Public Limited Companies (PLC)
        • definition
          • Must have a minimum share capital of £50,000, compared to £100 of a private limited company
          • Must have a minimum of two directors
          • A PLC can offer its shares and debentures（公司债券)to the public
        • Advantages
          • Can quickly gather a large amount of capital (finance) from the public which is conducive (helpful) to the growth of the company
          • Company’s shares can be freely transferred after the listing on the Stock Exchange (listing on the Stock Exchange means that the Stock Exchange has approved the company based on financial and other data provided that it can trade its shares. Any person can purchase these shares and they can be transferred to other people or / and companies)
        • Disadvantages
          • The company's ability to resist risks (market – e.g.competition, change of customer preferences etc.) is poor because most of the time the majority of shareholders lack a sense of responsibility. This is improving but only on a small scale
          • Large shareholders – because they hold many shares, their voting influence is so strong that the smaller shareholders power is very small / weak
          • The company's trade secrets are easily exposed compared to a private company because the rules of the Stock Exchange are that any changes to the company must be made public for the benefit of all shareholders
      • quangos(半官方机构）
        • The UK government's definition in 1997 of a quango was: A body which has a role in the processes of national government, but is not a government department or part of one, and which accordingly operates to a greater or lesser extent at arm's length from Ministers.
        • In effect it is a semi-public administrative body outside the civil service / public sector but receiving financial support from the government, which makes senior appointments to it.
        • They are supposed to do some practical job better than a government department could e.g. One UK example is the Forestry Commission, which is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in England.
      • Commercial and quasi-commercial（类商业） organisations operating in the public sector
        • State-owned Enterprises (SOEs):（国有企业）
          • Often referred to as nationalised industries（国有化企业）
          • Most countries have a state-owned industry sector
          • In the UK, the majority have been privatised（私有化）
          • e.g. telecommunications（电信）, public utility providers（公共事业供应商） such as power（电力）, water, train services etc.
      • Co-operative societies（合作协会）
        • Date back to the 19th century in the UK
        • Aim was to provide cheap food to their members and to share any profits
        • Can be producer based or retail based
        • Largest in the UK – The Co-operative Group
        • Areas include food (largest sector), insurance and banking – The Co-operative Bank (which will be covered in Topic 11– Corporate Responsibility)
      • Charities and voluntary organisations
        • In the UK, charities are registered with the Registrar of Charities
        • Main purpose is to
          • provide charitable support for various groups in society (e.g. Red Cross, Oxfam) or to
          • invest in research e.g. Cancer Research or British Heart Foundation
        • However, the organisation of these charities can be complex due to their dual roles of both raising money and distributing aid/funding
        • Employees often work as volunteers and do not receive any financial reward
      • franchise organisations （特许经营组织）
        • Franchisor （授予特许者）
          • owns the franchise brand name, usually a public or private limited company
        • Franchisee （特许经营人）
          • buys the right to use the franchise from the franchiser (more likely to be a sole trader)
        • Examples
          • Domino’s Pizza, Bodyshop, McDonald’s
        • franchise指特许经营权，是一种权利。franchisee指特许经营者，被授予特许经营权的人，可以理解为“加盟店”。franchiser和franchisor是一样的意思，只是拼写不同，指“能够授予他人特许经营权的人或组织”。简单来说，franchise是一种权利，franchisee是权利的被授予者，franchise是授予他人权利的人/组织
    • Industry sector
• internal environment
  • definition
    • The relationship between the external environment (covered in topic 2) and the internal environment is key to the way an organisation functions
    • Management within organisations needs to be aware of the implications of changes in their external environment and how these can be utilised internally, based on the resources they have available to them
  • Organisation charts and organisational structures
    • Worthington states that, whichever organisational structure is chosen, the following should be achieved
      • Achieve efficiency in the utilisation of resources
      • Provide opportunities for monitoring organisational performance
      • Ensure the accountability(责任） of individuals
      • Guarantee co-ordination（合作） between the different parts of the enterprise
      • Provide an efficient and effective means of organisational communication
      • Create job satisfaction, including opportunities for progression
      • Adapt to changing circumstances brought about by internal or external developments
    • Organisation Chart：“defines the formal pattern of role relationships and the interactions between roles and individuals occupying those roles”
    • Worthington classifies individual authority relationships(个人权威关系） into the following categories:
      • Line relationships（垂直管辖关系）
        • Occur when authority flows vertically downward through the structure from superior to subordinate (e.g. managers-section leader-staff)
        • Staff relationships are created when senior personnel appoint assistants who normally have no authority over other staff but act as an extension of their superior
      • Functional relationships（职能关系）
        • Functional relationships are those between specialists (or advisors) and line managers and their subordinates (e.g. when a specialist provides a common service throughout the organisation but has no authority over the users of the service). E.g.. Personnel or IT
      • Lateral relationships（横向关系）
        • Lateral relationships exist across the organisations, particularly between individuals occupying equivalent positions within different departments or sections (e.g. committees, heads of departments, section leaders)
    • group
      • Grouping by organisational activities
        • Functional organisation – focused around the functional activities
      • By product or service – certain groups and individuals are responsible for certain product lines
      • Divisional structure(部门结构） – an organisation is split into individual divisions that are self-contained
        • Possibly each division containing its own functional areas
  • functional areas
    • definition
      • “The functional areas of finance, operations management, HRM etc. and the individuals who are allocated to them, are central to the process of transforming organisational inputs into output.
      • The management of these functions and of the relationships between them will be a key factor in the success of the enterprise and in its ability to respond to external demands for change“
    • marketing（市场营销）
      • “Social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others”
    • operations management (运营管理）
      • “Operations is concerned with the transformation of a variety of inputs such as information, people, materials, finance and methods into a variety of outputs such as goods, services, profit, customer and employee satisfaction”
    • finance & accounting
      • Raising, controlling management and reporting of all financial aspects of an organisation
      • Split into 3 key areas
        • Financial management
        • Management accounting
        • Financial reporting
          • (note implication – is mainly for larger companies, Private and public limited companies)
    • human resource management (HRM)
      • “Human Resource Management involves all management decisions and actions that affect the nature of the relationship between the organisation and its employees –its human resources”
    • research and development (R&D)(研究和开发）
      • “is the name given to the organisational function that is usually the focus for innovation within a firm. R&D can refer to an activity or the name of a specific department. Expenditure on R&D and the size of an R&D department have been used as measures of levels of innovative activity”
• In-class Exercise
  • You just graduated from QMUL/BUPT and had a huge success in selling your very first App on Apple’s App Store. You’re enthusiastic now to set up your own software business.
  • Summarise the relative advantages and disadvantages of a sole trader, and a limited company within the hi-tech sector before deciding on the specific legal form you would like to choose for your new business.
  • Advantages
    • Limited Companies
      • • Economies of scale
      • • Global reach
      • • Vertical hierarchy
      • • Stable market
    • Sole Traders
      • • Responsive, flexible
      • • Regional reach
      • • Flat structure
      • • Organic
      • • Simple
      • • Niche finding
  • Disadvantages
    • Limited Companies
      • • Financial requirements
      • • Human resources
      • • Relatively complex
      • • Mechanistic
    • Sole Traders
      • • Unlimited liability
      • • Restrictions in further development
      • • No clear division of labour
  • Wrap-Up
    • Remind students the wide range of other factors that can cause individuals to make different decisions when starting their own business (e.g. personal ambition, access to finance and desire to have full control of their own business)