| Term |
|
Brief Definition |
| S.A. |
: |
Société Anonyme, Sociedad Anomina, or Societa Anomina. Joint stock companies (in French, Spanish, and Italian, respectively). |
| S.A.R.L. |
: |
Société à Responsibilité Limitée. |
| Safe haven |
: |
The currency of a country that is politically secure is called a safe haven currency. Gold is frequently used as a safe haven asset. |
| Safety needs |
: |
In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the desire for security, stability, and the absence of pain. |
| Sales company |
: |
A corporate entity established in a foreign country by the parent company to sell goods or services imported from the parent company and other foreign affiliates. |
| Sales promotion |
: |
Selling aids, including displays, premiums, contests, and gifts. |
| Sales tax |
: |
A tax levied on the cost (at retail) of a broad group of products. |
| Sample survey |
: |
Questionnaire responses from a sample of people. |
| Satellite system |
: |
A system that enables wireless technology through satellites that orbit the earth. Three proposed systems for satellite Internet access include geostationary, medium earth orbit (MEO) and low earth orbit (LEO). |
| Satisfaction progression process |
: |
A process whereby people become increasingly motivated to fulfill a higher need as a lower need is gratified. |
| Satisficing |
: |
Selecting a solution that is satisfactory, or “good enough” rather than optimal or “the best.” |
| Satisficing |
: |
Choosing a solution that meets a minimum standard of acceptance. |
| Saving |
: |
Disposable income not spent for consumer goods; equal to disposable income minus personal consumption expenditures. |
| Saving schedule |
: |
A schedule that shows the amounts households plan to save (plan not to spend for consumer goods), at different levels of disposable income. |
| Savings and loan association (S&L) |
: |
A firm that accepts deposits primarily from small individual savers and lends primarily to individuals to finance purchases such as autos and homes; now nearly indistinguishable from a commercial bank. |
| Savings deposit |
: |
A deposit that is interest-bearing and that the depositor can normally withdraw at any time. |
| Say’s law |
: |
The largely discredited macroeconomic generalization that the production of goods and services (supply) creates an equal demand for those goods and services. |
| Scalability |
: |
The ability of a system to be extended to handle a greater load. |
| Scarce resources |
: |
The limited quantities of land, capital, labor, and entrepreneurial ability that are never sufficient to satisfy people’s virtually unlimited economic wants. |
| Scenario |
: |
Description of a possible future. Managers often use most likely, worst, and best cases for the purpose of planning. |
| Scenario planning |
: |
A systematic process of thinking about alternative futures, and what the organization should do to anticipate and react to those environments. |
| Scenario technique |
: |
Speculative forecasting method. |
| Schema |
: |
Mental picture of an event or object. |
| Scientific management |
: |
Involves systematically partitioning work into its smallest elements and standardizing tasks to achieve maximum efficiency. |
| Scientific management |
: |
Using research and experimentation to find the most efficient way to perform a job. |
| Scientific method |
: |
A set of principles and procedures that help researchers to systematically understand previously unexplained events and conditions. |
| Scientific method |
: |
The procedure for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the observation of facts and the formulation and testing of hypotheses to obtain theories, principles, and laws. |
| Search conferences |
: |
Systemwide group sessions, usually lasting a few days, in which participants identify environmental trends and establish strategic solutions for those conditions. |
| Seasonal variations |
: |
Increases and decreases in the level of economic activity within a single year, caused by a change in the season. |
| Secondary appraisal |
: |
Assessing what might and can be done to reduce stress. |
| Secular trend |
: |
A long-term tendency; a change in some variable over a very long period of years. |
| Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) |
: |
A protocol that facilitates the secure authentication of credit card transactions on the Web as well as other payment processing issues, such as debit card transactions and credits back to credit cards. |
| Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) |
: |
An encrypted “tunnel” automatically set up between a user’s browser and a Web server that ensures secure communication between them. |
| Securitization |
: |
The term is most often used to mean the process by which traditional bank assets, mainly loans or mortgages, are converted into negotiable securities. More broadly, refers to the development of markets for a variety of new negotiable instruments. |
| Security |
: |
(when referring to capital) An IOU from a company to an investor that offers investors a share of ownership. |
| Security |
: |
(when referring to technology) The ability of a system to prevent illegal or inappropriate use of its data and to deter cybercriminals and hackers. |
| Segment screening |
: |
Takes sub-national or cross-national groups of consumers with similar consumption preferences as the relevant unit of analysis. |
| Segmentation |
: |
The process of dividing the diverse population of target customers into homogenous segments, any of which may be selected as the one to be reached with a distinct marketing mix. |
| Selective attention |
: |
The process of filtering information received by our senses. |
| Self-actualization needs |
: |
In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the desire to reach one’s full potential by becoming everything one is capable of becoming. |
| Self-concept |
: |
Person’s self-perception as a physical, social, spiritual being. |
| Self-directed work teams (SDWTs) |
: |
Cross-functional work groups organized around work processes, that complete an entire piece of work requiring several interdependent tasks, and that have substantial autonomy over the execution of those tasks. |
| Self-efficacy |
: |
A person’s belief that he or she has the ability, motivation, and resources to complete a task successfully. |
| Self-efficacy |
: |
Belief in one’s ability to do a task. |
| Self-efficacy |
: |
A person’s belief or confidence in his or her abilities to marshal the motivation, resources, and courses of action needed to successfully accomplish a specific task. |
| Self-esteem |
: |
One’s overall self evaluation. |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy |
: |
Occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations. |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy |
: |
People’s expectations determine behavior and performance. |
| Self-interest |
: |
That which each firm, property owner, worker, and consumer believes is best for itself and seeks to obtain. |
| Self-leadership |
: |
The process of influencing oneself to establish the selfdirection and selfmotivation needed to perform a task. |
| Self-managed teams |
: |
Groups of employees granted administrative oversight for their work. |
| Self-management leadership |
: |
Process of leading others to lead themselves. |
| Self-management teams |
: |
Employee groups that take over supervisory duties and manage themselves; teams consist of individuals who learn all the tasks of all the group members, allowing team members to rotate jobs. |
| Self-monitoring |
: |
A personality trait referring to an individual’s level of sensitivity to the expressive behavior of others and the ability to adapt appropriately to these situational cues. |
| Self-monitoring |
: |
Observing one’s own behavior and adapting it to the situation. |
| Self-reference criterion |
: |
Unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values when judging behavioral actions of others in a new and different environment. |
| Self-serving bias |
: |
A perceptual error whereby people tend to attribute their favorable outcomes to internal factors and their failures to external factors. |
| Self-serving bias |
: |
Taking more personal responsibility for success than failure. |
| Self-talk |
: |
Talking to ourselves about our own thoughts or actions for the purpose of increasing our selfefficacy and navigating through decisions in a future event. |
| Self-talk |
: |
Evaluating thoughts about oneself and one’s circumstances. |
| Seniority |
: |
The length of time a worker has been employed absolutely or relative to other workers; may be used to determine which workers will be laid off when there is insufficient work for them all and who will be rehired when more work becomes available. |
| Sense and respond |
: |
An approach to strategic development that focuses on quick responses to market developments. |
| Sense of choice |
: |
The ability to use judgment and freedom when completing tasks. |
| Sense of competence |
: |
Feelings of accomplishment associated with doing high-quality work. |
| Sense of meaningfulness |
: |
The task purpose is important and meaningful. |
| Sense of progress |
: |
Feeling that one is accomplishing something important. |
| Separation of ownership and control |
: |
The fact that different groups of people own a corporation (the stockholders) and manage it (the directors and officers). |
| Servant leadership |
: |
The belief that leaders serve followers by understanding their needs and facilitating their work performance. |
| Servant-leadership |
: |
Focuses on increased service to others rather than to oneself. |
| Servers |
: |
Computers that store and transmit information to the browsers to be displayed. |
| Service |
: |
An (intangible) act or use for which a consumer, firm, or government is willing to pay. |
| Sex-role stereotype |
: |
Beliefs about appropriate roles for men and women. |
| Sexual harassment |
: |
Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for its victims. |
| Shale |
: |
A fissile (capable of being split) rock composed of laminated layers of claylike, fine-grained sediment. |
| Shaping |
: |
Reinforcing closer and closer approximations to a target behavior. |
| Sherman Act |
: |
The Federal antitrust act of 1890 that makes monopoly and conspiracies to restrain trade criminal offenses. |
| Shirking |
: |
Workers’ neglecting or evading work to increase their utility or well-being. |
| Short position |
: |
The position of a party when it has sold something it does not own. This is for future delivery in the expectation that the item sold will decrease in price. It is also done to hedge a currency risk. |
| Short run |
: |
(1) In microeconomics, a period of time in which producers are able to change the quantities of some but not all of the resources they employ; a period in which some resources (usually plant) are fixed and some are variable. (2) In macroeconomics, a period in which nominal wages and other input prices do not change in response to a change in the price level. |
| Short selling |
: |
Occurs when an investor places a speculative bet that the value of a financial asset will decline, and profits from that decline. |
| Shortage |
: |
The amount by which the quantity demanded of a product exceeds the quantity supplied at a particular (below equilibrium) price. |
| Short-run aggregate supply curve |
: |
An aggregate supply curve relevant to a time period in which input prices (particularly nominal wages) do not change in response to changes in the price level. |
| Short-run competitive equilibrium |
: |
The price at which the total quantity of a product supplied in the short run in a purely competitive industry equals the total quantity of the product demanded and that is equal to or greater than average variable cost. |
| Short-run farm problem |
: |
The sharp year-to-year changes in the prices of agricultural products and in the incomes of farmers. |
| Short-run supply curve |
: |
A supply curve that shows the quantity of a product a firm in a purely competitive industry will offer to sell at various prices in the short run; the portion of the firm’s short-run marginal cost curve that lies above its average-variable-cost curve. |
| Shutdown case |
: |
The circumstance in which a firm would experience a loss greater than its total fixed cost if it were to produce any output greater than zero; alternatively, a situation in which a firm would cease to operate when the price at which it can sell its product is less than its average variable cost. |
| Sight draft |
: |
A draft payable on presentation to the drawee. |
| Sight draft |
: |
A bill of exchange that is payable immediately on presentation or demand. A bank check is a sight draft. |
| Simple multiplier |
: |
The multiplier in any economy in which government collects no net taxes, there are no imports, and investment is independent of the level of income; equal to 1 divided by the marginal propensity to save. |
| Simple rules strategy |
: |
A point of view that strategy is about simple decision rules (for example, only acquire firms with less than 75 employees). |
| Simplification |
: |
The process of exhibiting the same orientation toward different culture groups. |
| Single European Act |
: |
A 1997 act, adopted by members of the European Community, that committed member countries to establishing an economic union. |
| Site map |
: |
A hierarchical view of the proposed website that encompasses all of the primary pages. |
| Situational leadership model |
: |
Developed by Hersey and Blanchard, suggests that effective leaders vary their style with the “readiness” of followers. |
| Situational theories |
: |
Propose that leader styles should match the situation at hand. |
| Six sigma |
: |
Statistically based philosophy to reduce defects, boost productivity, eliminate waste, and cut costs. |
| Skill |
: |
Specific capacity to manipulate objects. |
| Skill variety |
: |
The extent to which employees must use different skills and talents to perform tasks within their job. |
| Skilled labor |
: |
Employees trained in needed skills. |
| Skunkworks |
: |
Cross-functional teams, usually separated from the main organization, that borrow people and resources and have relatively free rein to develop new products or services. |
| Slope of a line |
: |
The ratio of the vertical change (the rise or fall) to the horizontal change (the run) between any two points on a line. The slope of an upward-sloping line is positive, reflecting a direct relationship between two variables; the slope of a downward-sloping line is negative, reflecting an inverse relationship between two variables. |
| Smallest space analysis (SSA) |
: |
A nonparametric multivariate analysis. This mathematic tool maps the relationship among the countries by showing the distance between each. By looking at this two-dimensional map, it is possible to see those countries that are similar to each other and those that are not. |
| Smithsonian agreement |
: |
New agreements on currency par values, the value of gold, and tariffs reached by the major trading countries at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, in December 1971. When the United States closed the “gold window” in August 1971, the world currency exchanges were thrown into turmoil, and such agreements became necessary. |
| Smoot-Hawley tariff |
: |
Enacted in 1930 by the U.S. Congress, this tariff erected a wall of barriers against imports into the United States. |
| Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act |
: |
Legislation passed in 1930 that established very high tariffs. Its objective was to reduce imports and stimulate the domestic economy, but it resulted only in retaliatory tariffs by other nations. |
| Snake |
: |
During the 1970s, several West European countries agreed to keep the values of their currencies within established ranges in terms of one another. The currencies would all float in value in terms of other currencies, for example, the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. |
| Social capital |
: |
The productive potential of strong, trusting, and cooperative relationships. |
| Social democrats |
: |
Those committed to achieving socialism by democratic means. |
| Social distance |
: |
In communicating, the distance used to handle most business transactions. |
| Social identity theory |
: |
A conceptual framework based on the idea that how we perceive the world depends on how we define ourselves in terms of our membership in various social groups. |
| Social insurance programs |
: |
Programs that replace the earnings lost when people retire or are temporarily unemployed, that are financed by payroll taxes, and that are viewed as earned rights (rather than charity). |
| Social learning theory |
: |
A theory stating that much learning occurs by observing others and then modeling the behaviors that lead to favorable outcomes and avoiding the behaviors that lead to punishing consequences. |
| Social loafing |
: |
A situation in which people exert less effort (and usually perform at a lower level) when working in groups than when working alone. |
| Social loafing |
: |
Decrease in individual effort as group size increases. |
| Social mobility |
: |
The extent to which individuals can move out of the social strata into which they are born. |
| Social needs |
: |
The need to interact and affiliate with others and the need to feel wanted by others. |
| Social power |
: |
Ability to get things done with human, informational, and material resources. |
| Social regulation |
: |
Regulation in which government is concerned with the conditions under which goods and services are produced, their physical characteristics, and the impact of their production on society; in contrast to industrial regulation. |
| Social Security trust fund |
: |
A Federal fund that saves excessive Social Security tax revenues received in one year to meet Social Security benefit obligations that exceed Social Security tax revenues in some subsequent year. |
| Social strata |
: |
Hierarchical social categories. |
| Social structure |
: |
The basic social organization of a society. |
| Social support |
: |
Amount of helpfulness derived from social relationships. |
| Socialism |
: |
A political philosophy advocating substantial public involvement, through government ownership, in the means of production and distribution. |
| Socialism |
: |
A theory of society in which the government owns or directs most of the factors of production. |
| Socialist law |
: |
Law that comes from the Marxist socialist system and continues to influence regulations in countries formerly associated with the Soviet Union as well as China. |
| Socialized power |
: |
Directed at helping others. |
| Socially optimal price |
: |
The price of a product that results in the most efficient allocation of an economy’s resources and that is equal to the marginal cost of the product. |
| Society |
: |
Group of people who share a common set of values and norms. |
| Socio-emotional cohesiveness |
: |
Sense of togetherness based on emotional satisfaction. |
| Sociotechnical designs |
: |
Job designs that blend the personnel and the technology. |
| Sociotechnical systems (STS) theory |
: |
A theory stating that effective work sites have joint optimization of their social and technological systems, and that teams should have sufficient autonomy to control key variances in the work process. |
| Soft currency |
: |
A currency that is not freely convertible into other currencies. Such a currency is usually subject to national currency controls. |
| Soft loans |
: |
Loans like those granted by the IDA. These loans may have grace periods during which no payments need be made; they may bear low or no interest; and they may be repayable in a soft currency. |
| Sogo shosha |
: |
Japanese trading companies; a key part of the keiretsu, the large Japanese industrial groups. |
| Sogo shosha |
: |
The Japanese term for general trading companies. |
| Sole proprietorship |
: |
An unincorporated firm owned and operated by one person. |
| Sourcing decisions |
: |
Whether a firm should make or buy component parts. |
| Sovereign debt |
: |
The debt of a national government. |
| Sovereign immunity |
: |
The immunity of a government from lawsuits in the courts of its own country or other countries unless it submits voluntarily. Such immunity is particularly likely to exist if the government limits itself to governmental functions as opposed to economic ones. |
| Sovereignty |
: |
The power of each national government over the land within its borders and over the people and organizations within those borders. |
| Spam |
: |
Unsolicited marketing messages sent by e-mail or posted on newsgroups. |
| Span of control |
: |
The number of people directly reporting to the next level in the organizational hierarchy. |
| Span of control |
: |
The number of people reporting directly to a given manager. |
| Special drawing rights (SDRs) |
: |
Accounting entries at the IMF. SDRs are treated as reserve assets and are credited or debited to member countries’ accounts. Sometimes called paper gold, they permit liquidity to be created by agreement at the IMF rather than having it depend on the U.S. BOP deficit. |
| Special economic zones |
: |
Regions of China open to foreign investment, private ownership, and relatively free international trade. |
| Special purpose teams |
: |
Employee groups that design and introduce work reforms and new technology. |
| Special-interest effect |
: |
Any result of government promotion of the interests (goals) of a small group at the expense of a much larger group. |
| Specialization |
: |
An organizational characteristic that assigns individuals to specific, well-defined tasks. |
| Specialization |
: |
The use of the resources of an individual, a firm, a region, or a nation to concentrate production on one or a small number of goods and services. |
| Specialized asset |
: |
An asset designed to perform a specific task, whose value is significantly reduced in its next-best use. |
| Specialized internationals |
: |
Trade union associations that function as components of intergovernmental agencies and lobby within these agencies. |
| Specific culture |
: |
A culture in which individuals have a large public space they readily share with others and a small private space they guard and share only with close friends and associates. |
| Specific tariff |
: |
Tariff levied as a fixed charge for each unit of good imported. |
| Specific tariff or duty |
: |
A method of measuring customs duties or tariffs by number or weight instead of by value. Thus, the amount of the tariff or duty is based on how many units or how many pounds or kilos are imported, regardless of their value. |
| Speculation |
: |
The activity of buying or selling with the motive of later reselling or rebuying for profit. |
| Spillover |
: |
A benefit or cost from production or consumption, accruing without compensation to nonbuyers and nonsellers of the product. |
| Spillover benefit |
: |
A benefit obtained without compensation by third parties from the production or consumption of sellers or buyers. Example |
| Spillover cost |
: |
A cost imposed without compensation on third parties by the production or consumption of sellers or buyers. Example |
| Spot exchange rate |
: |
The exchange rate at which a foreign exchange dealer will convert one currency into another that particular day. |
| Spot rate or spot quotation |
: |
The rate of exchange between two currencies for delivery, one for the other, within two business days. |
| Stability |
: |
As used in this book, occurs when a government is not likely to be overturned by a revolution or a coup. |
| Staff personnel |
: |
Provide research, advice, and recommendations to line managers. |
| Staffing policy |
: |
Strategy concerned with selecting employees for particular jobs. |
| Stagflation |
: |
Inflation accompanied by stagnation in the rate of growth of output and an increase in unemployment in the economy; simultaneous increases in the price level and the unemployment rate. |
| Stakeholder audit |
: |
Systematic identification of all parties likely to be affected by the organization. |
| Stakeholders |
: |
Shareholders, customers, suppliers, governments, and any other groups with a vested interest in the organization. |
| Standard Oil case |
: |
A 1911 antitrust case in which Standard Oil was found guilty of violating the Sherman Act by illegally monopolizing the petroleum industry. As a remedy the company was divided into several competing firms. |
| Standardization of the marketing mix |
: |
The utilization of the same pricing, product, distribution, and promotional strategies in all markets where the firm does business. |
| Standardized product |
: |
A product whose buyers are indifferent to the seller from whom they purchase it as long as the price charged by all sellers is the same; a product all units of which are identical and thus are perfect substitutes for each other. |
| Standards |
: |
Rules that companies agree to adhere to so that their products can interact. |
| Startup |
: |
Beginning stage in the life cycle of a company. The goal is to develop a platform for rapid growth by building a strong team and creating a flexible site. |
| Startup (firm) |
: |
A new firm focused on creating and introducing a particular new product or employing a specific new production or distribution method. |
| State bank |
: |
A commercial bank authorized by a state government to engage in the business of banking. |
| State-directed economy |
: |
An economy in which the state plays a proactive role in influencing the direction and magnitude of private-sector investments. |
| State-owned enterprises |
: |
Businesses that are owned by the government; the major type of enterprises in Russia and China before their transitions to the market system. |
| Statistical discrimination |
: |
The practice of judging an individual on the basis of the average characteristic of the group to which he or she belongs rather than on his or her own personal characteristics. |
| Stereotype |
: |
Beliefs about the characteristics of a group. |
| Stereotyping |
: |
The process of assigning traits to people based on their membership in a social category. |
| Sterilization |
: |
The use by a central bank of operations (such as open market sales) to reduce bank reserves (liquidity) it has created through another financial transaction, such as the purchase of foreign currency. |
| Stock (corporate) |
: |
An ownership share in a corporation. |
| Stock of foreign direct investment |
: |
The total accumulated value of foreign-owned assets at a given time. |
| Stock options |
: |
A reward system that gives employees the right to purchase company stock at a future date at a predetermined price. |
| Stock options |
: |
Contracts that enable executives or other key employees to buy shares of their employers’ stock at fixed, lower prices when the stock prices rise. |
| Store of value |
: |
An asset set aside for future use; one of the three functions of money. |
| Straight bonds or notes |
: |
Issues with a fixed, not floating, coupon or interest rate. |
| Strategic advisors and partners |
: |
A group comprising the advisory board, board of directors, and strategic alliance companies that provide strategic direction and advice and help attract potential investors. |
| Strategic alliances |
: |
Cooperative agreements between two or more firms. |
| Strategic behavior |
: |
Self-interested economic actions that take into account the expected reactions of others. |
| Strategic business unit (SBU) |
: |
Business entity with a clearly defined market, specific competitors, the ability to carry out its business mission, and a size appropriate for control by a single manager. |
| Strategic choice |
: |
The idea that an organization interacts with its environment rather than being totally determined by it. |
| Strategic commitment |
: |
A decision that has a long-term impact and is difficult to reverse, such as entering a foreign market on a large scale. |
| Strategic constituency |
: |
Any group of people with a stake in the organization’s operation or success. |
| Strategic fit |
: |
An approach to strategically managing an organization that involves aligning resources in such a way as to mesh with the environment. |
| Strategic plan |
: |
A long-term plan outlining actions needed to achieve desired results. |
| Strategic planning |
: |
The process of determining an organization’s basic mission and long-term objectives, then implementing a plan of action for attaining these goals. |
| Strategic stretch |
: |
The creative use of resources to achieve ever more challenging goals. |
| Strategic trade policy |
: |
Government policy aimed at improving the competitive position of a domestic industry and/or domestic firm in the world market. |
| Strategic trade policy |
: |
The use of trade barriers to reduce the risk inherent in product development by domestic firms, particularly that involving advanced technology. |
| Strategy |
: |
Actions managers take to attain the firm’s goals. |
| Strategy implementation |
: |
The process of providing goods and services in accord with a plan of action. |
| Streaming audio |
: |
Sound files that allow a computer user to listen to a file while it is still downloading, rather than waiting until the file is completely downloaded to listen to it. |
| Streaming video |
: |
Video files that allow a computer user to watch a file while it is still downloading, rather than waiting until the file is completely downloaded to watch it. |
| Strength of association |
: |
The intensity with which the target consumer links a particular word, phrase, or meaning to a particular brand. |
| Strength perspective |
: |
Assumes that the strength of corporate culture is related to a firm’s financial performance. |
| Stress |
: |
An individual’s adaptive response to a situation that is perceived as challenging or threatening to the person’s well-being. |
| Stress |
: |
Behavioral, physical, or psychological response to stressors. |
| Stressors |
: |
The causes of stress, including any environmental conditions that place a physical or emotional demand on the person. |
| Stressors |
: |
Environmental factors that produce stress. |
| Strike |
: |
A collective refusal to work to pressure management to grant union demands. |
| Strike |
: |
The withholding of labor services by an organized group of workers (a labor union). |
| Structural Impediments Initiative |
: |
A 1990 agreement between the United States and Japan aimed at trying to decrease nontariff barriers restricting imports into Japan. |
| Structural unemployment |
: |
Unemployment of workers whose skills are not demanded by employers, who lack sufficient skill to obtain employment, or who cannot easily move to locations where jobs are available. |
| Structural-change hypothesis |
: |
The explanation that ascribes the decline of unionism in the United States to changes in the structure of the economy and of the labor force. |
| Subcontracting |
: |
Prime manufacturers’ purchase of components from other suppliers. Used in industrial cooperation. |
| Subsidiaries |
: |
Companies owned by another company, which is referred to as the parent company. |
| Subsidiary board of directors |
: |
A board that overseas and monitors the operations of a foreign subsidiary. |
| Subsidiary detriment |
: |
A subsidiary is deprived of a potential advantage so that the IC as a whole may enjoy a greater advantage. |
| Subsidies, export |
: |
Financial encouragement to export. Such subsidies can take the form of lower taxes, tax rebates, or direct payments. |
| Subsidy |
: |
Government financial assistance to a domestic producer. |
| Subsidy |
: |
A payment of funds (or goods and services) by a government, firm, or household for which it receives no good or service in return. When made by a government, it is a government transfer payment. |
| Substitutability |
: |
The extent to which people dependent on a resource have alternatives. |
| Substitute goods |
: |
Products or services that can be used in place of each other. When the price of one falls, the demand for the other product falls; conversely, when the price of one product rises, the demand for the other product rises. |
| Substitutes for leadership |
: |
Situational variables that can substitute for, neutralize, or enhance the effects of leadership. |
| Substitution effect |
: |
(1) A change in the quantity demanded of a consumer good that results from a change in its relative expensiveness caused by a change in the product’s price; (2) the effect of a change in the price of a resource on the quantity of the resource employed by a firm, assuming no change in its output. |
| Sunk cost |
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A cost that has been incurred and cannot be recovered. |
| Superordinate goal |
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A common objective held by conflicting parties that is more important than their conflicting departmental or individual goals. |
| Superstores |
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Name given to hypermarkets in Japan and in some parts of Europe and the United States. |
| Supplemental Security Income (SSI) |
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A federally financed and administered program that provides a uniform nationwide minimum income for the aged, blind, and disabled who do not qualify for benefits under the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Health Insurance or unemployment insurance program in the United States. |
| Supply |
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A schedule showing the amounts of a good or service that sellers (or a seller) will offer at various prices during some period. |
| Supply chain |
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The suppliers, contract manufacturers, and distributors that a company utilizes as sources of materials and services to manufacture a product. The supply chain is focused on the activities (plan, execute, control) related to meeting needs based on a combination of an organization’s capacity and its suppliers’ capacity. |
| Supply curve |
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A curve illustrating supply. |
| Supply factor (in growth) |
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An increase in the availability of a resource, an improvement in its quality, or an expansion of technological knowledge that makes it possible for an economy to produce a greater output of goods and services. |
| Supply-side economics |
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A view of macroeconomics that emphasizes the role of costs and aggregate supply in explaining inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. |
| Surplus |
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The amount by which the quantity supplied of a product exceeds the quantity demanded at a specific (above-equilibrium) price. |
| Surplus payment |
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A payment to a resource that is not required to ensure its availability in the production process; for example, land rent. |
| Surplus value |
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The amount by which a worker’s daily output in dollar terms exceeds his or her daily wage; the amount of the worker’s output appropriated by capitalists as profit; a Marxian term. |
| Survey feedback |
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An OD intervention that involves the gathering and analysis of information related to group behavior and problems and the feeding back of this information to develop effective action plans. |
| Swaps |
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The simultaneous purchase and sale of a given amount of foreign exchange for two different value dates. |
| Swaps |
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Are of two basic kinds |
| Swing |
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In a bilateral trade agreement, the leeway provided for mutual extension of credit. |
| Switch trade |
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A type of counter trade utilized when a country lacks sufficient hard currency to pay for its imports. When it can acquire from a third country products desired by its creditor country, it switches shipment of those products to the creditor country. Its debt to the creditor country is thereby paid. |
| Switching cost |
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The cost—both financial and personal—of switching from one business or product to another. In the offline world, these costs could include having to find a new business, drive there, and taking time to become familiar with the store. In the online world, these costs could include searching for a new online business, taking time to become familiar with the website, and taking time to register on the site. Offline switching costs tend to be greater than online switching costs. |
| Symptom management strategy |
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Coping strategy that focuses on reducing the symptoms of stress. |
| Synchronous manufacturing |
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An entire manufacturing process with unbalanced operations. Total system performance is emphasized. |
| Systematic risk |
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Movements in a stock portfolio’s value that are attributable to macroeconomic forces affecting all firms in an economy, rather than factors specific to an individual firm (unsystematic risk). |
| Systems |
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Routines or established procedures for any aspect of the organization. |
