Nature and Scope of Business

Concept of Business:

The word “business’ technically means “A state of being busy” In economic sense, business includes all those legal activities, which are undertaken for the purpose of earning profit. In other words, business is an activity in which various persons regularly produce or exchange goods and services for mutual gain or profit. All illegal activities, (smuggling, gambling and robbery) social activities, self-consumption and gifts etc are excluded from the definition of business. Thus business includes besides buying and selling of goods, manufacturing, mining, forestry, agriculture, fishing, trade, warehousing, banking, insurance, transport, financing as well as the services of all professional men who directly and indirectly help the production and distribution of goods.  Nature and Scope of BusinessAn organization formed for the purpose of business activities is called business enterprise or business organization. The persons who are engaged in business are called businessmen or entrepreneurs. Nature and Scope of Business

Definition:

The term business has been defined differently by different scholars from time to time. Following are the views of some of the prominent scholars 1.

L. Haney says:

“Business means human activity directed towards producing or acquiring wealth through buying and selling of goods”.

James Stephenson Says

“Every human activity which is engaged in for the sake of earning profits may

be called business”.

R.N., Owens says

“Business means an enterprise engaged in the production and distribution of goods for sale in a market or the rendering of services for a price”.

Peterson and Plowman says:

“Business may be defined as an activity in which different persons exchange something for value, whether goods or services for mutual gain or profit”.

Dr. W. R. Spriegel says:

“All of the activities included in the production and sale of goods and services may be classified as business activities