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This Introduction to Business course provides a comprehensive overview of the business world, structured into 17 chapters:

1. Understanding Economic Systems and Business: Introduces the nature of business, the business environment, macroeconomics, microeconomics, free market competition, and current business trends.
2. Making Ethical Decisions and Managing a Socially Responsible Business: Focuses on business ethics, organizational influence on ethical conduct, managing socially responsible businesses, stakeholder responsibilities, and trends in ethics and corporate social responsibility.
3. Competing in the Global Marketplace: Covers global trade in the U.S., reasons for international trade, trade barriers, fostering global trade, international economic communities, global market participation, multinational corporations, and global competition trends.
4. Forms of Business Ownership: Discusses sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, specialized business forms, franchising, mergers and acquisitions, and trends in business ownership.
5. Entrepreneurship: Starting and Managing Your Own Business: Explores entrepreneurship today, characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the role of small business in America, starting and managing a small business, the Small Business Administration, and trends in entrepreneurship.
6. Management and Leadership in Today's Organizations: Examines the role of management, planning, organizing, leading, controlling, managerial roles and skills, and current trends in management and leadership.
7. Designing Organizational Structures: Looks at building organizational structures, contemporary structures, team use, authority, centralization, organizational design considerations, informal organizations, and trends in organizational structure.
8. Managing Human Resources and Labor Relations: Addresses human resources management, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance evaluation, compensation and benefits, labor relations, managing conflicts and grievances, legal environment, and trends in HR and labor relations.
9. Motivating Employees: Discusses early motivation theories, Hawthorne Studies, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor's theories, Herzberg's theory, contemporary motivation views, application of motivation theory, and trends in employee motivation.
10. Achieving World-Class Operations Management: Covers production and operations management, the production process, location decisions, resource planning, operations control, improving production and operations, technology in production, and trends in this field.
11. Creating Products and Pricing Strategies to Meet Customers' Needs: Focuses on the marketing concept, marketing strategy, marketing mix, buyer behavior, market segmentation, product creation, product life cycle, pricing strategies, and trends in product development and pricing.
12. Distributing and Promoting Products and Services: Explores distribution functions, wholesaling, retailing, supply chain management, promotion strategy, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, social media trends, and e-commerce trends.
13. Using Technology to Manage Information: Discusses transforming businesses through information, computer networks, management information systems, technology management and planning, protecting computers and information, and trends in information technology.
14. Using Financial Information and Accounting: Covers the basics of accounting, the accounting profession, accounting procedures, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, financial statement analysis, and accounting trends.
15. Understanding Money and Financial Institutions: Looks at the nature of money, the Federal Reserve System, U.S. financial institutions, bank deposit insurance, international banking, and trends in financial institutions.
16. Understanding Financial Management and Securities Markets: Examines the role of finance and financial managers, fund usage, short-term and long-term financing, equity financing, securities markets, securities exchanges, and trends in financial management and securities markets.
17. Your Career in Business: Provides guidance on learning business basics, developing interpersonal skills, career planning, the importance of college education, starting a career, and self-assessment guidelines.

Each chapter includes key terms, a summary of learning outcomes, skills for the workplace, ethics activities, internet resources, critical thinking cases, and interactive exercises, providing a well-rounded understanding of the modern business landscape.