Fundamentals of Business, Second Edition (2018) is an 372-page open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, and personal finances. The textbook was designed for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business and is shared under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 license.

2018 version formats include: PDF, Accessible "screen reader friendly" PDF, ePub, Mobi, XML/Pressbooks (editable), and open document format.
The Pressbooks online version (HTML) is available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentals-of-business
The 2016 version of this book includes editable MSWord files.

If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/business-interest

Instructor resource sharing portal: https://www.oercommons.org/groups/fundamentals-of-business-user-group/1379

This book looks at the opportunities and risks associated with staking out a global competitive presence and introduces the fundamentals of global strategic thinking. We define crafting a global strategy in terms of change—how a company should change and adapt its core (domestic) business model to achieve a competitive advantage as it expands globally. The conceptual framework behind this definition has three fundamental building blocks: a company’s core business model, the various strategic decisions a company needs to make as it globalizes its operations, and a range of globalization strategies for creating a global competitive advantage.

GEO is a simulation game for business management that can be used either as a supplemental exercise to a lecture- or case-intensive course, a core component of an experiential-intensive course, or as a competitive event for assessment. The game is especially suited for courses in management principles, international business, entrepreneurship, and strategic management.

This course will focus on understanding aspects of modern technology displaying exponential growth curves and the impact on global quality of life through a weekly updated class project integrating knowledge and providing practical tools for political and business decision-making concerning new aspects of bioengineering, personalized medicine, genetically modified organisms, and stem cells. Interplays of economic, ethical, ecological, and biophysical modeling will be explored through multi-disciplinary teams of students, and individual brief reports.

Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa enables teams of students to work with the top management of global start-ups and gain experience in running, and consulting to, a new enterprise outside the United States. The focus is on start-ups operating in emerging markets throughout the world, with a special focus on Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The course combines an internship in a growing firm with in-class discussions of the issues and policies that affect the climate for innovation and start-up success around the world.

Mayer, Warner, Siedel and Lieberman's Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand in today’s highly regulated business environment. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style.

After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Government Regulation and the Legal Environment of Business provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, consumer credit transactions, bankruptcy, intellectual property, securities regulation, regulation of real estate, antitrust, unfair trade practices, employment law and labor relations. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.

Business can refer to a particular organization such as WalMart or to an entire market sector—for example, “the music business.” Compound forms such as agribusiness represent subsets of the word’s broader meaning, which encompasses all activity by suppliers of goods and services in the agricultural industry.  Business can also refer to an individual who earns his or her income by working from home selling items through an online auction site like eBay.  The concept of business has enough definitions and applications that we could almost say that everything is business. Throughout this course we will explore the various functions, roles, and characteristics of business while keeping in mind that business is like the air we breathe—everywhere!

This ready-to-adopt Introduction to Business course develops students’ understanding of business fundamentals with learning design structured around timely, real-world case studies and examples. Key topics include the role of business, the global economic and legal environment, ethics, marketing, accounting and finance, and managing processes and operations. Enriched OER content (text, video, simulations, etc.) orients students to the shifting business landscape and prepares them for success in business program curriculum and the workplace.

This course was written by Linda Williams of Tidewater Community College and Lumen Learning and is supplemented by content from OpenStax Principles of Economics, Boundless Business, and videos from multiple sources.

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Our Criteria
Accuracy and Currency
How accurate is the material, based on current standards in the field?
If the material is inaccurate, does it acknowledge conflicts in perspectives and changes over time?
If the material is outdated, does it serve other purposes (to provide historical perspective, to provoke discussion, or to serve as an example)?

Within this review of Lumen's Open Educational Resource (OER) Introduction to Business by Linda Williams, I chose to pick one part of the course content to review - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The material is based on current standards within the business ethics foundation. This portion of CSR goes over current terminology such as "green-washing" and connects to current controversies within CSR, which is important to students going forward in business. Thus far, I see that this information serves discussion purposes, as well as historical relevance. The chapter starts with President Calvin Coolidge's vantage to of business not being a part of business, outside of people being a foundation to business.

Bias
How does the material acknowledge perspectives (of the authors, of other experts in the field, of critical voices, etc.)?
How does the material present facts, opinions, and judgments?
How does the licensing of the material allow the instructor to remix or revise biased content?

The material doesn't acknowledge the author's perspective, which doesn't give a bias. It does present facts within the chapter. In my review, I am unsure if educators can revise the content; but, educators can add portions of the course OER to their classrooms, i.e. CANVAS or Blackboard.

Ability to Overcome Barriers to Engagement
How does the material engage students? Does the material reflect student experience and views?
How do students access the material? Does it require technology skills? Can it be accessed in multiple ways through multiple means?
How does the material/resource respond to accommodative and adaptive technologies?

In reviewing the CSR chapter, I was happy to see video supporting "Increased Pressure from Consumers" subsection of the chapter. This could be a great reflection of students views. This material does require technology skills in order for access to this chapter and OER book. In my review, I was able to connect to the OER course and chapter through a desktop computer, but I did not connect via a mobile phone. For accessibility (ADA) purposes, it is possible to use "talk to text" or "speechnotes" with this OER.

Publishing Process & Licensing
How was the material published? What kind of review/editing process was used?
How is the material licensed and stored? Can it be remixed and revised as needed? Is it subscription-based and if so, who pays for the subscription?
What is the 'permanence' of this material? Is it temporal (likely to be removed or taken down)? What would be the back-up plan if license/access to this material is lost?

Depending if the educator uses "Waymaker", "OHM", or "Candela", each student could pay between $10 to $25 per student as a subscription, in comparison to over $100 for a textbook. Lumen offer workshops and training within their OER program.

Relevant to Course & Institution
How does this material align with course objectives and learning activities?

At the beginning of the CSR chapter, it gives student outcomes such has the definition of CSR, describe the impact of CSR to its stakeholders, and give examples to students of what CSR is within business. This material is align to "Introduction to Business" student outcomes, as well as to AACSB International accreditation.

Relevant to Students
How does the material reflect student interests and learning goals?
How does the material give student autonomy in their learning?
How does the material encourage interaction, critical thinking, and deeper learning/processing

This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumen necessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials—and to their own lawyers.

Introductory Business Statistics is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the one-semester statistics course for business, economics, and related majors. Core statistical concepts and skills have been augmented with practical business examples, scenarios, and exercises. The result is a meaningful understanding of the discipline, which will serve students in their business careers and real-world experiences.

This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumen necessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials—and to their own lawyers.

Opportunity for group study by graduate students on current topics related to management not otherwise included in curriculum. This five-day interactive and experiential workshop focuses on how leaders lead innovations that both promote social responsibility and produce business success. The workshop is organized around three main parts: observation, sense-making, and creating. During the observation phase, students spend a full day inside the Boston office of the design company IDEO and visit some of the most interesting proven innovators in corporate social responsibility such as Ben & Jerry's, KLD, MBDC, Plug Power (fuel cell technology), PwC, chlumberger, or core team members of the UN Global Compact. After returning from their company visits, students describe to one another what they saw and learned. In the final part of the Lab, students conceive and implement innovation projects that serve the needs of a local community. Each team presents its practical accomplishments on the final day of the Lab.

Our subject is the ethics of leadership, an examination of the principles appealed to by executive authority when questions arise about its sources and its legitimacy. Most treatments of this subject resort to case-studies in order to illustrate the application of ethical principles to business situations, but our primary emphasis will be upon classic works of imaginative literature, which convey more directly than case-studies the ethical pressures of decision-making. Readings will include works by Shakespeare, Sophocles, Shaw, E.M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, George Orwell, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Henrik Ibsen, among others. Topics to be discussed include the sources of authority, the management of consensus, the ideal of vocation, the ethics of deception, the morality of expediency, the requirements of hierarchy, the virtues and vices of loyalty, the relevance of ethical principles in extreme situations.

Kurt Heisinger and Joe Ben Hoyle believe that students want to learn accounting in the most efficient way possible, balancing coursework with personal schedules. They tend to focus on their studies in short intense segments between jobs, classes, and family commitments. Meanwhile, the accounting industry has endured dramatic shifts since the collapse of Enron and WorldCom, causing a renewed focus on ethical behavior in accounting. This dynamic author team designed Managerial Accounting to work within the confines of today’s students’ lives while delivering a modern look at managerial accounting.

Managerial Accounting was written around three major themes: Ready, Reinforcement and Relevance. This book is aimed squarely at the new learning styles evident with today’s students and addresses accounting industry changes as well.

Core subject for students majoring in management science. Surveys individual and social psychology and organization theory interpreted in the context of the managerial environment. Laboratory involves projects of an applied nature in behavioral science. Emphasizes use of behavioral science research methods to test hypotheses concerning organizational behavior. Instruction and practice in communication include report writing, team decision-making, and oral and visual presentation. Twelve units may be applied to the General Institute Laboratory Requirement.

Introduces tools from strategy and economics to look systematically at marketing strategy. Topics include how to find profit opportunities, how to create competitive advantage, and how to challenge competitive advantage. Taught as a mix of cases and lectures. The course is aimed at helping you look at the entire marketing mix in light of the strategy of the firm. It will be most helpful to students pursuing careers in which they need to look at the firm as a whole. Examples include consultants, investment analysts, entrepreneurs, and product managers. Objectives 1. Identify, evaluate, and develop marketing strategies. 2. Evaluate a firm's opportunities. 3. Anticipate competitive dynamics. 4. Evaluate the sustainability of competitive advantages.

Organizational Leadership and Change focuses on practical experience that blends theory and practice. Students reflect on prior leadership experiences and then apply lessons learned to further develop their leadership capabilities. The course requires active participation in all leadership classes and/or activities as well as short deliverables throughout the program.

During the last fifteen years, nations across the globe embarked on a historic transformation away from centrally planned economies to market-oriented ones. However, in the common pursuit for economic growth, these transition economies implemented widely different reform strategies with mixed results. With over a decade of empirical evidence now available, this new course examines this phenomenon that has pushed the discourse in a number of disciplines, requiring us to reconsider fundamental issues such as: - the proper relationship between business, government, and the public interest; - the possible synergies and tensions between economic growth and equity; and - how economic transition has reshaped cities. The premise of the course is that the primary issue in transition involves institution-building and re-building in different contexts.

This course takes a broad-based look at poker theory and applications of poker analytics to investment management and trading.

Pop-up shops are temporary stores that “pop up” for a few days or months. They are a new form of retail operations that have gained popularity in the past decade. Retailers and brands of all sizes have implemented pop-up shops – from global and national retail chains, to small independent stores and even e-commerce pure players – that have positioned these initiatives as a marketing & communication tool, as incubators to test a market and/or new products, or as inventory liquidation venues. Pop-up shops have also been established as a solution for revitalizing communities where significant storefront vacancies exist.