CHAPTER SUMMARY • Innovation is the process of introducing new ideas or methods.
• Ideas for new products and services can come from sources inside a business (internal) or outside a business (external).
• Brainstorming is when a group gets together to come up with business ideas. • An employee who demonstrates enterprise characteristics in the workplace is called an intrapreneur.
• A research and development (R&D) department is dedicated to improving a business’s existing products or services and researching opportunities for new products or services.
• A SWOT analysis considers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to/for a business. • A business that offers a similar product or service is called a competitor.
• The number of units of a product that must be sold in order to cover costs is called the break-even point.
• A feasibility study is an investigation to see if a product or service is workable. • A prototype is a test model of a new product. • Test marketing involves trying the product on a small group of people to find out their reaction to it. • Marketing is the process of getting products and services from the producer to the consumer. • The people who are most likely to buy or use a new product or service are called the target market. • Market research involves gathering, recording and analysing information about a market.
• Desk research involves looking at information that is already available from other sources, such as the internet, libraries and government agencies.
• Field research involves going into the market and collecting new information, using methods such as observing consumer behaviour, interviews, surveys, questionnaires and focus groups.
• The group of people who take part in field research are called the sample. • Open questions allow the person being interviewed or surveyed to give their own opinion. • Closed questions ask for a yes or no answer or for a specific piece of information.
Taking stock A
Go to page 100 of your Activities and Accounts Book to check what you have learned in chapter 14.
