Economic Definition of the Four Factors

Economic Definition of the Four Factors of Production by Osmond Vitez, Demand Media

Economic resources are the goods or services available to individuals and businesses used to produce valuable consumer products. The classic economic resources include land, labor and capital. Entrepreneurship is also considered an economic resource because individuals are responsible for creating businesses and moving economic resources in the business environment. These economic resources are also called the factors of production. The factors of production describe the function that each resource performs in the business.
Land
Land is the economic resource encompassing natural resources found within a nation’s economy. This resource includes timber, land, fisheries, farms and other similar natural resources. Land is usually a limited resource for many economies. Although some natural resources, such as timber, food and animals, are renewable, the physical land is usually a fixed resource. Nations must carefully use their land resource by creating a mix of natural and industrial uses. Using land for industrial purposes allows nations to improve the production processes for turning natural resources into consumer goods.
Labor
Labor represents the human capital available to transform raw or national resources into consumer goods. Human capital includes all able-bodied individuals capable of working in the nation’s economy and providing various services to other individuals or businesses. This factor of production is a flexible resource as workers can be allocated to different areas of the economy for producing consumer goods or services. Human capital can also be improved through training or educating workers to complete technical functions or business tasks when working with other economic resources.
Capital
Capital has two economic definitions as a factor of production. Capital can represent the monetary resources companies use to purchase natural resources, land and other capital goods. Monetary resources flow through a nation’s economy as individuals buy and sell resources to individuals and businesses.
Capital also represents the major physical assets individuals and companies use when producing goods or services. These assets include buildings, production facilities, equipment, vehicles and other similar items. Individuals may create their own capital production resources, purchase them from another individual or business or lease them for a specific amount of time from individuals or other businesses.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is considered a factor of production because economic resources can exist in an economy and not be transformed into consumer goods. Entrepreneurs usually have an idea for creating a valuable good or service and assume the risk involved with transforming economic resources into consumer products. Entrepreneurship is also considered a factor of production since someone must complete the managerial functions of gathering, allocating and distributing economic resources or consumer products to individuals and other businesses in the economy.

In economics, factors of production, resources, or inputs are what is utilized in the production process in order to produce output—that is, finished goods. The amounts of the various inputs used determine the quantity of output according to a relationship called the production function. There are three basic resources or factors of production:land, labour, and capital .Some modern economists also consider entrepreneurship or time a factor of production. These factors are also frequently labeled "producer goods" in order to distinguish them from the goods or services purchased by consumers, which are frequently labeled "consumer goods." All three of these are required in combination at a time to produce a commodity.
Factors of production may also refer specifically to the primary factors, which are land, labor (the ability to work), andcapital goods applied to production. Materials and energy are considered as secondary factors in classical economics because they are obtained from land, labour and capital. The primary factors facilitate production but neither become part of the product (as with raw materials) nor become significantly transformed by the production process (as with fuel used to power machinery). Land includes not only the site of production but natural resources above or below the soil. Recent usage has distinguished human capital (the stock of knowledge in the labor force) from labor.[1]Entrepreneurship is also sometimes considered a factor of production.[2] Sometimes the overall state of technology is described as a factor of production.[3] The number and definition of factors varies, depending on theoretical purpose, empirical emphasis, or school of economics.[4]

BUSINESS
A business, also known as an enterprise or a firm, is an organizationinvolved in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers.[1]Businesses are prevalent in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and provide goods and services to customers in exchange for other goods, services, or money. Businesses may also benot-for-profit or state-owned. A business owned by multiple individuals may be referred to as a company.
The etymology of "business" stems from an early form of the adjective "busy",[2] and implies socially valuable and rewarding work. Business can refer to a particular organization or, more generally, to an entire market sector, e.g. "the music business". Compound forms such as agribusiness represent subsets of the word's broader meaning, which encompasses all activity by suppliers of goods and services.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver.

Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient, although the receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender's message.
Discursive communication three primary steps:[2]
Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea, information, or feeling.
Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.
Decoding: Finally, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that a person can understand.

Business communication

The sharing of information between people within an organisation that is performed for the commercial benefit of an organisation; relays information within a business; or functions as an official statement from a company.

Communication as a Process
Human communication is interpersonal, it is purposive and it is a process.
Question: What do we mean by process?
Answer: By process we mean that steps have to be taken and in a set/particular order to achieve a desired result/goal. These are the important elements of the communication process:

1. SENDER/ENCODER
The sender also known as the encoder decides on the message to be sent, the best/most effective way that it can be sent. All of this is done bearing the receiver in mind. In a word, it is his/her job to conceptualize.
The sender may want to ask him/herself questions like: What words will I use? Do I need signs or pictures?

2. MEDIUM
The medium is the immediate form which a message takes. For example, a message may be communicated in the form of a letter, in the form of an email or face to face in the form of a speech.

3. CHANNEL
The channel is that which is responsible for the delivery of the chosen message form. For example post office, internet, radio.

4. RECEIVER
The receiver or the decoder is responsible for extracting/decoding meaning from the message. The receiver is also responsible for providing feedback to the sender. In a word, it is his/her job to INTERPRET.

5. FEEDBACK
This is important as it determines whether or not the decoder grasped the intended meaning and whether communication was successful.

6. CONTEXT
Communication does not take place in a vacuum. The context of any communication act is the environment surrounding it. This includes, among other things, place, time, event, and attitudes of sender and receiver.

7. NOISE (also called interference)
This is any factor that inhibits the conveyance of a message. That is, anything that gets in the way of the message being accurately received, interpreted and responded to. Noise may be internal or external. A student worrying about an incomplete assignment may not be attentive in class (internal noise) or the sounds of heavy rain on a galvanized roof may inhibit the reading of a storybook to second graders (external noise).
The communication process is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, and contextual. It is not possible to participate in any element of the process without acknowledging the existence and functioning of the other elements.

Advantage of PRINT MEDIA The Following Are The Advantages Of Print Media Over The Other.

1. Less Costly Than Tv Media
2. Can Be Used In Different Language Newspapers
3. Good Option For Targeting Educated Target Market
4. More And Detailed Information About The Product Can Be Given

There are four goals of business communication:
Goal 1. To ensure receiver understanding
Goal 2. To ensure receiver response
Goal 3. To ensure a favorable relationship between sender and receiver
Goal 4. To ensure organizational goodwill Definition
Communication is the exchange of ideas, information and opinions between two or more people. In the business world, communication is vital for the effective operation of an organization. It is important to remember that communication is a dialogue, not a monologue.

META COMMUNICATION

Communication that indicates how verbal information should be interpreted; stimuli surrounding the verbal communication that also have meaning, which may or may not be congruent with that of or support the verbal talk. It may support or contradict verbal communication; Communication which is implicit and not expressed in words.

metacommunication, is a secondary communication (including indirect cues) about how a piece of information is meant to be interpreted. It is based on idea that the same message accompanied by different meta-communication can mean something entirely different, including its opposite, as in irony.[1] The term was brought to prominence by Gregory Bateson to refer to "communication about communication", which he expanded to: "all exchanged cues and propositions about (a) codification and (b) relationship between the communicators".[2] Metacommunication may or may not be congruent, supportive or contradictory of that verbal communication.

Kinesic communication is communicating by body movement and is perhaps the most well-known non-verbal form of communication, although it is not the only way to talk with others without words.