A-Level AQA 2025 Business Paper 3 Mark Scheme

A-Level AQA 2025 Business Paper 3 Mark Scheme 2 benefits of contingency planning - ANSWER-minimise the impact of an unexpected event, reduces negative publicity .2 benefits of strategic planning - ANSWER-provides direction to a business, ensures decision making is well thought out based on data rather then taking decisions that are based on unnecessary risk .2 difficulties of strategic decision making and implementing strategy - ANSWER-ensuring theres enough resources and how changes in external environment will affect the business and its strategy .2 examples of consumer goods - ANSWER-shopping goods (phones, clothes), convenience goods (milk/bread, newspapers) .2 examples of industrial goods - ANSWER-machinery and component parts .2 influences on choice of distribution channel - ANSWER-the nature of product and customer expectations in terms of being able to access/purchase product .2 influences on integrated marketing mix - ANSWER-target market and current stage of product life cycle the product is in .2 influences on new product development - ANSWER-actions of competitors and amount of resources available .2 influences on promotional mix - ANSWER-promotional budget and developments in technology .2 possible effects of divorce between ownership and control - ANSWER-shareholders put pressure on directors to max profits/dividend payments which encourages short termism, directors may pursue objectives that benefit themselves rather than the business .2 reasons for strategic drift - ANSWER-if strategy failed to adapt to changes in external environment, strategy based on whats worked well in past rather than changing strategy .2 reasons why a business may feel pressure to innovate - ANSWER-competitor actions and social changes .2 situations when network analysis is used - ANSWER-implementing a strategy and planning a complicated project .2 ways of evaluating strategic performance - ANSWER-measure performance against set targets/benchmarks across time period, financial evaluation .3 diseconomies of scale - ANSWER-control/co-ordination, communication and motivation .3 economies of scale - ANSWER-technical, managerial and purchasing .3 influences on organisational culture - ANSWER-leadership style, organisational structure and market in which the business operates in .3 problems of changing organisational culture - ANSWER-culture is deeply embedded in the organisation so any culture change will take time, the business my experience resistance to change from employees, and a clear strategy is required if cultural change is to be successful .3 reasons for changing organisational culture - ANSWER-to improve business performance, to respond to changes in external environment and a new CEO is appointed who may change the firms objectives of strategy .3 reasons why organisational culture is important - ANSWER-impact on business performance, influences on labour turnover and can differentiate a business from its rivals .3 ways of reducing break-even output - ANSWER-increasing selling price per unit, lowering fixed costs, and lowering variable costs per unit .a benefit and a drawback of multi-channel distribution - ANSWER-increased flexibility and choice for customers to purchase goods which drives sales but can be expensive to develop and time consuming to manage .a benefit and draw of digital marketing - ANSWER-greater insights into market and customers available but negative feedback/publicity from customers can be seen by others and scruntinised .a benefit and drawback of takeovers and mergers - ANSWER-lower unit costs through benefit of economies of scale but if the businesses fail to take into account the different cultures they may not be compatible .advantages of network analysis - ANSWER-identifies critical activities, can be used to review progress on individuals tasks and strategy implementation can be as speedy as possible .Backwards vertical integration - ANSWER-joining with a firm operating at an earlier stage in the production process