Types of business organisation, objectives and stakeholders

Learning objectives

Set the four main types of organisation side by side — sole trader, partnership, private limited company and public limited company — judging each on who owns and controls it, who is liable for its debts and how easily it can raise finance

Choose the type of organisation that best fits the owners in a case study and defend the choice

Describe three other forms — the franchise, the joint venture and the social enterprise — and weigh a franchise from both sides (franchisor and franchisee) and a joint venture for the businesses that form it

List typical objectives a business may set itself (to survive, to grow, to make a profit, to win market share) and explain what a business gains from setting them

Sort stakeholders into those inside the business (its owners, managers and employees) and those outside it (customers, suppliers, lenders such as banks, the government and the local community), and say what each group wants

Show how a single decision can please one stakeholder group and upset another because they want different things