AQA A-level BUSINESS APPROVED BEST RATING Paper 2 Business 2 FINAL MAY 2023

AQA A-level BUSINESS Paper 2 Business 2 Wednesday 7 June 2023 Morning Time allowed: 2 hours Materials For this paper you must have: • a calculator. Instructions • Use black ink or black ball-point pen. • Fill in the boxes at the top of this page. • Answer all questions. • You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write outside the box around each page or on blank pages. • If you need extra space for your answer(s), use the lined pages at the end of this book. Write the question number against your answer(s). • Do all rough work in this answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. Information • The marks for questions are shown in brackets. • The maximum mark for this paper is 100. Answer all questions in the spaces provided. box Read the information below and then answer the questions that follow. AJS plc AJS plc is a manufacturer of non-recyclable packaging. This packaging is widely used by takeaway food outlets. AJS plc plans to invest £500 000 in new technology to increase capacity and make its factory more capital intensive. Appendix A Data on proposed investment (produced by AJS plc’s operations manager) Year Annual net cash flow £000s Discount factor (10%) 0 (500) 1.00 1 (50) 0.91 2 250 0.83 3 600 0.75 Appendix B UK market for non-recyclable takeaway food packaging Appendix C UK market for recyclable takeaway food packaging Appendix D Selected Human Resource data 2022 AJS plc Industry average Average salary £22 000 £26 000 Salary costs as a percentage of turnover (%) 40 35 Labour turnover (%) 15 4 Working days lost through industrial action 25 5 Average number of applicants for vacancies 14 55 Appendix E Selected Financial data for AJS plc 2022 Current assets £550 000 Current liabilities £270 000 Non-current liabilities £4m Operating profit £3m Gearing 22% Change in the share price of AJS plc over the year –15% Change in the share price of the top 100 UK companies over the year +8% Turn over ► box . Calculate the Net Present Value for AJS plc’s proposed investment. [4 marks] box . Using Appendix E, calculate the Return on Capital Employed for AJS plc in 2022. [4 marks] . Analyse why AJS plc has decided to become more capital intensive. [9 marks] box Extra space Turn over ► . With reference to the data provided, would you advise a potential investor to buy shares in AJS plc? box Justify your view. [16 marks] box Extra space *07* Turn over ► Read the information below and then answer the questions that follow. Homeworking Homeworking (or teleworking) is the action of working from home, using the Internet, email and the telephone to link the employee and the business remotely. The number of people working from home has been rising steadily for several years as communications technology has improved. Table 1 UK labour market data 2019 2020 Number of people in employment (millions) 32.6 32.5 Number of people working at least partly from home (millions) 8.7 Some businesses now adopt homeworking as the normal practice. For example, several financial institutions have reduced the amount of office space they own or rent in city centres. The wider impact of the change has been seen through fewer commuting journeys. There have been some concerns over increased homeworking due to a reduction in face-to-face communication between employees. There has also been a decline in sales for businesses, such as coffee shops, that rely on office staff as customers. Some sectors, such as transportation and wholesale, provide few opportunities for people to work from home. Other sectors, such as IT, finance and insurance, provide more homeworking opportunities to staff. box . Of people in employment, 36% worked at least partly from home in 2020. Using Table 1, calculate the percentage change in the number of people working at least partly from home between 2019 and 2020. [3 marks] . Analyse one way the balance sheet of a business (its statement of financial position) might be affected if more of its employees work from home. box [6 marks] Turn over for the next question Turn over ► . The role of a manager has different elements. Analyse the impact of the increase in homeworking by office staff on the way that their managers fulfil their role. box [9 marks] Extra space 9 . Would increased homeworking improve the performance of businesses that use Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line to measure their success? box Justify your view. [16 marks] Turn over ►