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Unit 1: Business activity

  • Unit 1: Business activity

Unit 1: Business activity

Unit 1 begins the underlying ideas and concepts of business and asks the question, why do businesses exist? Is it just about making profit or are there other motivating factors that drive entrepreneurship? This section also looks at the different ways that a businesses can be classified. Why is it that some businesses grow while others remain small is also examined in this section while the final section of this unit considers how the size of any business is measured and stakeholder objectives. This unit is unchanged for the new Cambridge syllabus, which has its first exams in May 2027.

Direct links to the pages in this section can be accessed at the following links:

Unit 1.1: Scarcity and opportunity cost

This page contains notes and lesson activities to cover unit 1.1, the concepts of wants, needs, scarcity and opportunity cost plus the importance of specialisation.Lesson time: 60 minutes

Unit 1.1: The purpose and nature of business activity

This page contains notes and lesson activities to cover unit 1.1, the purpose and nature of business activity and includes activities on the concept of added value and how this can be increased.

Unit 1.2: Classification of business

This page includes notes and activities for Unit 1.2, which focuses on classifying businesses within the public and private sectors. The unit begins with examples from the primary, secondary, and tertiary...

Unit 1.3: Business size

This page focusses on the methods and problems of measuring business size and considers why some businesses grow while others remain small and finally, why some (new or established) businesses fail?

Unit 1.3: Enterprise and business growth

This page is introduces the people that run businesses for the first time. It looks at the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the contents of a business plan and assesses how business plans...

Unit 1.4: Types of business organisation

This page looks at the main features of different forms of business organisation in the private sector and the differences between unincorporated businesses and limited companies.Teacher notes

Unit 1.4: Types of public sector organisations

This page looks at the main features of different forms of business organisation within the public sector and the key differences between organisations in the public sector and those in the private.

Unit 1.4: Choosing the right business structure

When an entrepreneur starts a business they have to choose the correct type of structure for their business. While some of this comes down to personal preference, the type of business is also a factor...

Unit 1.5: Business objectives and stakeholder objectives

This lesson, the last of unit 1, focusses on businesses objectives, a recognition that firms can have several objectives and an understanding that these objectives might change over time. The lesson then...

Unit 1: Revision sheet

I have included this page, which contains a PDF handout as a simple revision exercise. I find that many IGCSE students get a significant amount from these short summary handouts.The review sheet is available...

Unit 1: Multiple choice quiz

This page includes a multiple-choice quiz for unit 1, business activity.The questions on this paper can be downloaded as a PDF file at: Questions

Selected Pages

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