OCR A-Level Business H431 sample questions and answers (H431)
Guide overview All 7 topics Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
35 sample questions and answers
Taken from every topic of OCR A-Level Business H431, specification H431. The full guide has 2,384.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Introduction to Business
134 questions in the guide, across 9 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Entrepreneurs, enterprise and the value they create
How does the entrepreneur's role usually change once the business grows beyond a handful of staff?
Show the answer
The entrepreneur shifts from doing most of the work personally to delegating day-to-day decisions to specialist managers, and concentrates instead on strategy, finance and direction. -
Land, labour, capital and enterprise
Why is a bank loan not capital in the economist's sense?
Show the answer
A loan is money, and money only becomes capital once it has been spent on the machinery, premises or equipment that actually produce output. -
Sectors of industry, forms of ownership and the reach of a market
What is meant by deindustrialisation?
Show the answer
Deindustrialisation is the long-term fall in the share of a country's output and employment accounted for by the secondary sector, usually as the tertiary sector grows in its place. -
Sole traders, partnerships, companies and limited liability
How many partners does an ordinary partnership need, and what liability do they carry?
Show the answer
An ordinary partnership needs at least two partners, and each of them has unlimited liability for the debts of the firm. -
Choosing a legal structure and what it means for stakeholders
How does the choice of legal structure affect the privacy of a business's finances?
Show the answer
A sole trader or ordinary partnership publishes nothing, while a limited company must file annual accounts that competitors, customers and suppliers can all read.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Business Objectives and Strategy
497 questions in the guide, across 34 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Aims, objectives and the hierarchy that links them
Give an example of an operational objective.
Show the answer
Producing 500 units a day on a particular production line is an operational objective, because it concerns the day-to-day running of one part of the business. -
Stakeholder conflict and its management
Why might the local community and shareholders disagree over an expansion?
Show the answer
Expansion raises output and profit for shareholders, but brings extra traffic, noise and building on open land for residents. -
Building and judging a CSR profile
How can a strong CSR profile help recruitment?
Show the answer
Many people prefer to work for an employer whose values they share, so a good profile widens the applicant pool and can reduce labour turnover. -
Quantifiable and unquantifiable risk
Why does the distinction between quantifiable and unquantifiable risk matter in decision making?
Show the answer
Quantifiable risks can be built into an expected value calculation, while unquantifiable ones have to be handled by judgement, contingency planning and caution. -
Porter's Five Forces
When is the bargaining power of buyers high?
Show the answer
When buyers are few and large, the product is undifferentiated, switching costs are low, and buyers can easily compare prices or produce the item themselves.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
External Influences
394 questions in the guide, across 27 subtopics. More from this topic
-
The market, its size, growth and share
Why does the size of its market matter to a business deciding how much capacity to build?
Show the answer
Market size sets the maximum sales realistically available, so it shows whether the output planned could ever be sold and whether the scale needed for low unit costs is achievable. -
Equilibrium, shortages and surpluses
What happens to equilibrium price and quantity when supply shifts to the right and demand is unchanged?
Show the answer
The equilibrium price falls and the equilibrium quantity rises. -
Competition, and barriers to entry and exit
What is a barrier to entry?
Show the answer
A barrier to entry is anything that makes it difficult or expensive for a new firm to start selling in a market. -
Multinationals, global strategy and global brands
Distinguish between globalisation and a global strategy.
Show the answer
Globalisation is a process happening to the world economy as a whole, whereas a global strategy is a deliberate plan by one business to operate across many countries, usually with a common product and brand. -
Free trade, trading blocs and the European Union
Distinguish between a free trade area and a customs union.
Show the answer
In a free trade area members remove tariffs between themselves but each sets its own tariffs on goods from outside, whereas in a customs union they also apply a common external tariff.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Accounting and Finance
304 questions in the guide, across 20 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Accounting and finance objectives
Why is a start-up more likely to set a cash-flow objective than a profit objective?
Show the answer
Most start-ups make a loss in their early trading, and running out of cash forces closure long before low profit does, so survival depends on liquidity. -
A true and fair view and the accounting conventions
Explain the convention of prudence.
Show the answer
Where there is uncertainty, losses and liabilities are recognised as soon as they become likely while profits and assets are recognised only when reasonably certain, so the position is never overstated. -
Contribution and the break-even point
State the formula for break-even output.
Show the answer
Break-even output equals total fixed costs divided by contribution per unit. -
Break-even charts, stepped fixed costs and special orders
A business has fixed costs of £30,000 up to 4,000 units and contribution of £10 per unit. Calculate its break-even output.
Show the answer
Break-even output is 3,000 units. -
Budgets and variance analysis
Explain two purposes a budget serves besides controlling spending.
Show the answer
It coordinates departments around a single plan, and it motivates managers by giving them a clear target for which they are accountable.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Human Resources
366 questions in the guide, across 24 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Human resource objectives
Why does a business planning rapid expansion need human resource objectives as well as sales objectives?
Show the answer
Growth in sales cannot be delivered without the right number of trained staff in place, so the business must set objectives for recruitment, training and retention to support it. -
Organisational culture and what shapes it
Name three factors other than leadership that influence a business' culture.
Show the answer
The national culture it operates in, the size and structure of the organisation, and the industry it competes in all influence its culture. -
The communication model and barriers to communication
Give three examples of barriers to communication in a workplace.
Show the answer
Technical jargon the receiver does not understand, a language difference in an international team, and an atmosphere of distrust between managers and staff are all barriers. -
Recruitment and the choice between internal and external hiring
Why does a person specification separate essential from desirable requirements?
Show the answer
It lets the business reject applicants who cannot do the job at all, then rank the remainder fairly on the extras, which speeds up shortlisting and makes it defensible. -
Appraisal: 360°, peer and self-assessment
What is peer assessment?
Show the answer
It is appraisal in which an employee's performance is judged by colleagues at the same level who work alongside them.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Marketing
377 questions in the guide, across 25 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Marketing objectives and why a business sets them
How do clear marketing objectives help a department allocate its budget?
Show the answer
They show which activities contribute to the stated goal, so spending can be directed towards those and away from ones that do not. -
Secondary market research and desk sources
Give two examples of internal secondary data held by a business.
Show the answer
Internal secondary data includes the business's own past sales records and its log of customer complaints. -
Market share and market growth
A business sells 60,000 units and holds a 15% share of its market by volume. Calculate the total size of the market in units.
Show the answer
The market is 60,000 ÷ 0.15, which is 400,000 units. -
Niche marketing and mass marketing
Why does mass marketing usually produce lower unit costs?
Show the answer
High volumes spread fixed costs thinly and bring purchasing economies, so each unit costs less to make and to sell. -
Customers, consumers and business-to-business marketing
Give two features that distinguish a business market from a consumer market.
Show the answer
Buyers are fewer and each is much larger, and purchase decisions are usually made by several people against technical criteria.
Component 01, Component 02, Component 03
Operations Management
312 questions in the guide, across 22 subtopics. More from this topic
-
Operations objectives and operations strategy
How does an environmental target work as an operations objective?
Show the answer
It commits operations to a measurable cut in waste, emissions or energy use, which then shapes the choice of suppliers, materials and production methods. -
Innovation and research and development
How does a patent encourage a business to invest in research and development?
Show the answer
It gives a period of legal protection during which rivals cannot copy the invention, so the innovator can charge a higher price and recover the development cost. -
Service provision and customer service
Why is quality harder to standardise in services than in manufacturing?
Show the answer
Each encounter depends on the individual member of staff and the individual customer, so output varies between deliveries in a way an inspected physical product does not. -
Critical path analysis and network diagrams
A project's longest route runs through four activities lasting 3, 5, 4 and 2 days. State the minimum project duration and the float these activities carry.
Show the answer
The minimum duration is 3 + 5 + 4 + 2 = 14 days, and each of these activities has zero float. -
Economies and diseconomies of scale
Explain financial economies of scale.
Show the answer
A large firm is treated as a lower credit risk and can borrow larger sums, so it obtains finance at a lower rate of interest than a small firm can.
OCR A-Level Business H431 Active Recall Guide
The other 2,349 questions, with the answers printed after each section.