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“To know what a business is, we have to start with its purpose. Its purpose must lie outside of the business itself. In fact, it must lie in society since business enterprise is an organ of society. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.
“Markets are not created by God, nature, or economic forces but by businesspeople. The want a business satisfies may have been felt by the customer before he or she was offered the means of satisfying it. Like food in a famine, it may have dominated the customer’s life and filled all his waking moments, but it remained a potential want until the action of businesspeople converted it into effective demand. Only then is there a customer and a market. The want may have been unfelt by the potential customer; no one knew that he wanted a Xerox machine or a computer until those became available. There may have been no want at all until business action created it – by innovation, by credit, by advertising, or by salesmanship. In every case, it is business action that creates the customer.
“It is the customer who determines what a business is. It is the customer alone whose willingness to pay for a good or for a service converts economic resources into wealth, things into goods. What the customer buys and considers value is never just a product. It is always a utility, that is, what a product or service does for him.”
Peter Drucker,
The Essential Drucker, p 18
The study of business prepares students to function, either as individuals or as part of a larger organization in the production and delivery of goods and services. The Associate in Science in Business Administration for Transfer degree is in compliance with SB 1440 (Education Code section 66746). The Associate in Science in Business Administration for Transfer degree prepares students to transfer into the CSU system to complete a baccalaureate degree in Business, Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, etc. The Associate in Science in Business Administration for Transfer degree prepares students to seamlessly pursue a baccalaureate degree in Business at a California State University.
Check the Business Department website for more information about the degrees and certificates offered and classes required. Check with a counselor/advisor to see course requirements for these degrees.
HA - Statistics
HB - Economic Theory and Demography
HC-HD - Economic History
HE - Transportation and Communications
HF - Commerce
HG - Finance
HJ - Public Finance
When you're working on a research project, you need to use terms that relate to your topic to find information sources - but you also need to be flexible. Combining multiple terms will help you find sources that are more closely focused on your specific topic.
These are some useful terms to use for a research project in Business. Other terms may be useful as well. Use specific words, but only use one or two word phrases - not whole sentences! Try both plural and singular forms, and try varying combinations.
The search terms listed above can be used in Google, but you'll find more reliable and authoritative sources searching in the library's OneSearch catalog - or in Credo Reference, an online collection of reference and research sources. Use the box below to access Credo's Business resources, or access OneSearch from the Library Materials tab on this guide. (You may be asked to login using your student ID number).
