Business Essentials continues to provide a solid foundation of the essential topics that first-semester business students need to understand. Its focus on practical skills, knowledge of the basics, and important developments in business makes for a brief book, but a rich experience.

　　The recent events in domestic and global economies are presenting unprecedented challenges, excitement, and disappointments for business—and a need for a change in the Introduction to Business course and text. This text captures the widespread significance of these developments and presents their implications on businesses today.

　　1.Chapter Case Vignettes. All of the chapter-opening cases are fresh, relevant, and up-to-date. Covering companies such as Facebook, eBay, and Apple, these chapter case vignettes pique students』 interest at the beginning of the chapter and reinforce concepts they』ve learned throughout their reading.

　　2.Entrepreneurship and New Ventures Features. Whether working for a large corporation or starting their own business, students need to be both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial. These now updated popular boxed features touch on entrepreneurs who have truly made a difference.

　　3.Glindex. In addition to the marginal key terms from previous editions, this text also features a combined glossary and index—a glindex—to make it even easier to find the definitions of key terms and where they are referenced in the text.

　　4.NEW! Six kinds of chapter-ending involvement activities—to reinforce and practice the use of chapter concepts—are back by popular demand (see below for detailed descriptions).

　　5.NEW! Hundreds of new real-life business examples added throughout the text, as requested by reviewers and users.

　　6.Updated! Substantially updated Marketing Processes and Consumer Behavior ( Chapter 11 ), with all-new sections covering the new product development process, customer relationship management, geo-demographic segmentation, and behavior segmentation.

　　7.NEW! Five new sections added to illustrate the modernization of Pricing, Distributing, and Promoting Products ( Chapter 12 ), including the role of e-intermediaries, non-physical storage (warehousing for digital data), direct interactive marketing, combining just-in-time and supply chains for a competitive advantage, as well as marketing strategies of distribution via supply chains.

　　8.NEW! Four new sections cover the latest changes in Information Technology for Business ( Chapter 13 ), including computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), applications software (「apps」), computer-based voice technology, and recent ethical issues arising from IT.

作者簡介

Ronald J. Ebert

　　現職：University of Missouri Columbia

Ricky W. Griffin

　　現職：Texas A & M University