Fundamentals of Business, Second Edition

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.

NOTE: A third edition of this book was released in 2020. See http://hdl.handle.net/10919/99283 for more details and to freely access the third edition.

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.

If you are an instructor seeking supplementary resources for teaching, please join the listserv for this book and the resource sharing portal.

A testbank is now available by request for this book. The testbank is available to any instructor who has adopted Fundamentals of Business in their course.

Permanent handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84848 (PDF, epub, and other versions)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentals-of-business-vtechworks (PDF, epub, and other versions)
Online book: https://oen.pressbooks.pub/fundamentalsofbusiness (eBook-Pressbooks)
ISBN (print-color): 9780997920178 Available on Amazon
ISBN (print-black & white): 9781949373981 Available on Amazon
ISBN (ebook-PDF): 9781949373905
ISBN (eBook-Pressbooks): 97809979201-3-0

Instructors reviewing, selecting or adapting the text are encouraged to register their use with VT Publishing at in order to stay up to date regarding new volumes and editions, supplements, newly issued print versions, errata, and collaborative development or research opportunities. You may submit comments or report errors using this form. Additional suggestions or feedback may be submitted via email at: publishing@vt.edu

Errors, omissions, and additions

This work is a project of the Pamplin College of Business and University Libraries at Virginia Tech. This work is published by VT Publishing.

What’s new?
This version of the book, the second edition, improves upon the 2016 edition. Improvements include:

• Correction of errata identified in the 2016 compilation and many minor improvements.
• Renumbering of chapters and added front matter.
• Addition of new content: the PESTEL model in Chapter 2, Qualtrax case study in Chapter 7, and substantive revision of Chapter 16 Hospitality and Tourism.
• Addition of desktop and mobile friendly navigation features and interactive self-quizzing (Pressbooks version only).
• Addition of links to related external videos.
• Addition of a low-resolution version.
• Addition of accessibility features. Accessible PDFs: Figures now include alternative text (AltText) which enables access by users of screen reader software.
• Broader format availability: PDF, epub, mobi, html, PressbooksXML, and OpenDocument (ODF) which is unformatted text editable with MSWord.
• Addition of a feedback form for reporting errata
• Addition of a faculty listserv and sharing portal.
• Errata and corrections made to the Pressbooks version. No changes made to other formats.

Features of the book
Each chapter lists learning objectives at the beginning of the chapter and key takeaways at the end of the chapter. The Pressbooks version of this book also includes interactive self-quizzing.

Editable files are available in HTML, Open Document, PressBooks XML, ePub, MOBI, and PDF.

Selected graphics produced by Brian Craig are available CC BY 4.0 via WikimediaCommons.

Table of contents
Chapter 1: Teamwork in Business
Chapter 2: The Foundations of Business
Chapter 3: Economics and Business
Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility
Chapter 5: Business in a Global Environment
Chapter 6: Forms of Business Ownership
Chapter 7: Entrepreneurship: Starting a Business
Chapter 8: Management and Leadership
Chapter 9: Structuring Organizations
Chapter 10: Operations Management
Chapter 11: Motivating Employees
Chapter 12: Managing Human Resources
Chapter 13: Union/Management Issues
Chapter 14: Marketing: Providing Value to Customers
Chapter 15: Pricing Strategy
Chapter 16: Hospitality and Tourism
Chapter 17: Accounting and Financial Information
Chapter 18: Personal Finances

Suggested citation
Skripak, Stephen J. (2018). Fundamentals of Business, 2nd Edition, Blacksburg, VA: VT Publishing. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84848. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Contributors: Anastasia Cortes, Gary Walton, Richard Parsons, Anita Walz
Digital and print production: Corinne Guimont with Robert Browder
Alternative text and accessibility: Stephanie Edwards and Christa Miller
Selected graphics: Brian Craig
Cover design: Trevor Finney
Student reviewers: Jonathan De Pena, Nina Lindsay, Sachi Soni
Project manager / editor: Anita Walz

About the author
About the Previous Author
Fundamentals of Business, 2nd edition is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. We wish to extend our gratitude to the original author for portions of her book which were remixed and adapted to form portions of Chapters 1-15 and 17-18 of Fundamentals of Business. If the publisher and author are both willing to allow us to provide attribution to the author while retaining use of the Creative Commons license and continuing to provide free public access, we will gladly and publicly thank the original author here.

About Stephen Skripak
Stephen J. Skripak is Professor of Practice in Management at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech and former Associate Dean for Graduate Programs (2006-2014). He is a senior executive with 25 years of business leadership experience, including positions as General Manager and Chief Financial Officer with divisions of Fortune 500 companies. His background includes financial services, consumer packaged goods, apparel, and industrial companies, with emphasis in turnaround situations.