Business Essentials, 14th edition

Published by Pearson (March 14, 2024) © 2025

  • Ronald J. Ebert University of Missouri-Columbia
  • Ricky W. Griffin Texas A&M University

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For introductory business courses.

A focus on the practical skills and important developments in business

Recent economic events are presenting unprecedented challenges, excitement and disappointments for businesses. They’re also uncovering a need for change in introduction to business courses and texts. Business Essentials captures the widespread significance of these developments and presents their implications for companies today.

New coverage in the 14th Edition looks at changing employment relationships, changing labor relations and demographics, inflation and ESG. Students also see how entrepreneurs are putting into practice the concepts they’re learning about.

Hallmark features of this title

  • An Integrative Learning Portfolio, at the end of each part, integrates various topics across different chapters, helping students build their business skills. It’s comprised of:
    • Crafting a Business Plan: An assignment, which can be used across the semester, guides students in developing a business plan.
    • Integrative Case: An ongoing case which, throughout all 6 parts of the book, illustrates how all aspects of business relate to a single company: Starbucks.
    • Finding Your Path: Looks at job market trends, starting salaries, and various career paths related to the topics covered in each part.
  • What’s in It for Me? boxes reinforce the importance of different roles (employee, employer, consumer, investor) and the implications of each in the world of business.

New and updated features of this title

  • UPDATED: All facts, figures and examples have been updated to reflect the most current information available.
  • NEW and UPDATED: Cases introduce a variety of relatable topics and companies that draw students into the content of each chapter. New cases examine Harley Davidson, In-N-Out, Disney theme parks, Rihanna, and Wegmans.
  • NEW: Finding a Better Way boxes provide examples of organizations that are “finding a better way” to meet business challenges and describe how they’re doing it. New examples explore AI, the gig economy, trade with Mexico, Airbnb, Spotify, innovations in shopping, and bitcoin.
  • NEW: Entrepreneurship and New Ventures sections show students entrepreneurs who’ve made a difference, both in small and large firms. Cases look at women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs in the C-Suite, technology, BlackRock, and microlending.
  • NEW: Managing in Turbulent Times sections show students how they can learn from the disappointments and challenges real companies face. New features examine COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, the airline industry, unionization, ransomware, bank failures, and the virtual workplace.

Features of MyLab Intro to Business for the 14th Edition

  • Mini Sims put students in professional roles and give them the opportunity to apply course concepts and develop decision-making skills through real-world business challenges. Team Mini Sims allow to you create small student teams, while Communication Improvement Mini Sims let students get hands on with realistic business correspondence.
  • NEW: Business Plan Assignments guide students through each stage of starting and managing a business.
  • The Case Study Library offers brief, assignable case studies to help students work through real-world business scenarios. Choose from text or video cases that can be auto- or manually-graded.
  • The Video Library makes it easy for instructors to select videos and related assessments for their pre-built assignments. Videos help students understand why they’re learning key concepts and how to apply them in their careers. And auto-scored assessments save instructors valuable time in grading assignments.
  • Chapter Warm-up Assessments help you hold your students accountable for learning key concepts in each chapter before coming to class.
  • Dynamic Study Modules use the latest developments in cognitive science and help students study chapter topics by adapting to their performance in real time.

PART 1: THE CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS WORLD

  1. The US Business Environment
  2. Understanding Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
  3. Entrepreneurship, New Ventures, and Business Ownership
  4. Understanding the Global Context of Business

PART 2: MANAGING THE BUSINESS

  1. Managing the Business
  2. Organizing the Business
  3. Operations Management and Quality

PART 3: PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATIONS

  1. Employee Behavior and Motivation
  2. Leadership and Decision Making
  3. Human Resource Management and Labor Relations

PART 4: PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITHCUSTOMERS FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

  1. Marketing Processes and Consumer Behavior
  2. Developing and Pricing Products
  3. Distributing and Promoting Products

PART 5: MANAGING INFORMATION FOR BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS

  1. Information Technology (IT) for Business
  2. The Role of Accountants and Accounting Information

PART 6: THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND ISSUES IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

  1. Understanding Money and the Role of Banking
  2. Managing Business Finances

APPENDICES

  1. Risk Management
  2. The Legal Context of Business
  3. Managing Your Personal Finances
  4. Unions and Labor Management

About our authors

Ronald J. Ebert is Emeritus Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Professor Ebert’s work has been based on more than 30 years of teaching experience at such schools as Sinclair College, University of Washington, University of Missouri, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania), and Consortium International University (Italy). His consulting alliances have included such firms as Mobay Corporation, Kraft Foods, Oscar Mayer, Atlas Powder, and John Deere. He has designed and conducted management development programs for such diverse clients as the American Public Power Association, the US Savings and Loan League, and the Central Missouri Manufacturing Training Consortium.

His experience as a practitioner fostered an advocacy for integrating concepts with best business practices in business education. The 5 business books he has coauthored have been translated into Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Malaysian, Bahasa Indonesian, and Romanian languages. Professor Ebert has served as the Editor of the Journal of Operations Management. He is a Past President and Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. He has served as consultant and external evaluator for Quantitative Reasoning for Business Studies, an introduction-to-business project sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Professor Ebert retired from his role as co-author of this book after the publication of its 11th edition, but his imprint and myriad contributions can still be found in many different places throughout the text.

Ricky Griffin joined the faculty at Texas A&M University in 1981. During his career at Texas A&M, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in management, organizational behavior, human resource management, and international business. Professor Griffin’s research interests include workplace aggression and violence, organizational security, workplace culture, and leadership. His work has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Journal of Management. He served as Associate Editor and then as Editor of Journal of Management.

Professor Griffin has led executive development programs and/or consulted with such firms as Halliburton, Concho, KBR, Ascend, Shell Oil Company, Six Flags, and WinCo. He has also delivered invited presentations in England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Australia. He has also served as a consulting expert in numerous legal cases involving workplace violence and bullying and general human resource and talent management practices.

In addition, Professor Griffin has authored or coauthored several leading textbooks and coedited 3 scholarly books. His books have been used at more than 500 colleges and universities on 5 continents and have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Polish, and Chinese. He has served the Academy of Management as Chair of the Organizational Behavior Division and as Program Chair of the Research Methods Division. He also has served as President of the Southwest Division of the Academy of Management and on the Board of Directors of the Southern Management Association. Professor Griffin is a Fellow of both the Academy of Management and the Southern Management Association. He has also won several awards for research and has been supported by more than $1,500,000 in external research funding. Professor Griffin has served as Director of the Center for Human Resource Management and Head of the Department of Management at Texas A&M University. He has also served as Executive Associate Dean and Interim Dean at the Mays Business School.

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