An enterprise differs from a firm in that. The difference between a company and an organization. Enterprise as an organization

Is there a difference between a company and a firm? Despite the fact that the presence of differences may seem surprising, they are still present. Moreover, the difference turns out to be significant. The most important thing is to carefully study the definitions, and then - to understand what is hidden under the concepts.

Company and firm: definitions

The company is a name that comes from the French word compagnie, which can be translated as society. This organization involves the union of several legal entities or individuals, which must jointly deal with various types of economic orientation for a guaranteed income. The range of services provided may include manufacturing, mediation, insurance and financial transactions.

All members of the association have certain rights and can influence the general business activity. Regardless of which persons are representatives of the composition, the company can be registered only as a legal entity, which complies with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Firm is a word that was originally firma meant a signature. Subsequently, the meaning has changed. Currently, in Russia, a firm has begun to refer to a commercial or industrial enterprise that offers certain services under a private label. Currently, the word "firm" can be used in the form of two meanings:

• The official name of the company that conducts business. Compulsory registration is assumed, since only after it can compliance with the law be guaranteed. It should be noted that the subject acquires the status of a trademark.
• The company is created by one or more persons to conduct profitable activities. In this case, even an individual can found a company.

Company and firm: comparison

In order to understand the existing difference, you need to operate with existing definitions. In this case, it is desirable to use the second definition of a firm. With this approach, the difference between a company and a firm is laid at the stage of registration of the enterprise.

Thus, the company's activities should be at a more developed and worthy level, because it is assumed that it is possible to include several areas at the same time. For example, you might be the owner of a chain of restaurants or hotels while doing shipping, logging, and other niches at the same time. A firm can only be engaged in a certain type of activity, for which it was originally created.

It should be noted that all persons who created the company have voice in the board, allowing you to vote for certain decisions and use the same rights to manage the enterprise. The firm lacks a well-defined relationship between the parties.

Company and firm: distinctive features

1. It is assumed that the company can be founded by only one person, which is reflected in all documents.
2. The company should be a large entity and the firm should be a smaller one.
3. The firm assumes a limitation in terms of areas of activity.

Firms and companies: general functions

The company and the firm must have a significant impact on the economic sphere in the state due to the fact that they are engaged in commercial, production activities, have certain corporate and collective property.

1. In each case, it is assumed that there is a separate and independent economic unit, which must have legal registration with the tax office.
2. Legal registration is assumed with the obligatory presence of a certain capital, charter, business plan. On the basis of all of the above components, entrepreneurial activity can develop.
3. One person or several co-founders must independently make decisions for the development of the business, taking into account the existing situation. At the same time, production and commercial independence is guaranteed.
4. The main task of entrepreneurial activity is to minimize financial losses and guaranteed profit.

In each case, it is assumed the fulfillment of certain tasks for the successful development of entrepreneurial activity:

• Increasing the volume of sales of goods and attracting customers to offer services. At the same time, it is expected to increase the share in the existing market with the ability to control pricing and consumer demand.
• Development of a team, which may consist not only of officially employed employees, but also of freelancers.
• Guaranteed survival in a crisis economy, despite inflation and other unfavorable factors.
• The basis for further advancement in the market. At the same time, it is necessary to offer competitive goods or services, gaining an ideal reputation.

Any company or firm can develop only on the basis of a few functions:

1. A production function that involves the ability to offer goods or services.
2. Commercial function based on sales of finished products, marketing and advertising campaign.
3. Financial function with the search for investments, obtaining loans, paying taxes, making a profit and solving other financial issues.
4. Counting function, involving the solution of documentary issues.
5. Administrative function with enterprise management.
6. A legal function to ensure compliance with laws and business standards.

The main task is to gain a stable position in the market in the niche of interest.

It would seem that the differences between the terms "enterprise" and "company" are not significant, so many make the mistake of calling one another. Naturally, this is forgivable for a common man in the street. But people directly connected with business need to know what each of these concepts is and how they differ from each other.

Definition

Company is an association of legal entities and / or individuals for the purpose of carrying out production, financial, trade or other economic activities that bring stable income and profits. The company must necessarily have the status of a legal entity and can exist in the form of a partnership, association, firm, business entity, corporation, etc.

Company is an organizationally separate economic entity that has the rights of a legal entity and was created for the production of products, their sale, performance of work, as well as the provision of services in order to fully or partially satisfy private or public needs and generate income and profit.

Comparison

Based on the definition of the terms "company" and "enterprise", it can be seen that a company is a mandatory conglomerate (association) of commercial and industrial entrepreneurs, while an enterprise can be created by one or more legal entities and / or individuals.

A company can engage in several types of activities at the same time, that is, include various enterprises (hotels, factories, factories, shopping centers, mines, etc.). An enterprise is a separate specialized unit created to perform a certain type of activity (performance of work, production of products, provision of services).

The company is managed by the top management, in the company all persons with shares in the capital of the company have a voice in decision-making.

Conclusions site

1. A company is an association of commercial and industrial entrepreneurs, while an enterprise can be created by one legal entity and / or individual.
2. A company can combine several different enterprises engaged in different types of activities. An enterprise is a specialized unit created to perform a specific type of activity.
3. The company is managed by senior management, the company is a group of people who have shares in the capital of the company.

Entrepreneurial activity is carried out in certain organizational and economic forms at the enterprises of the firms.

In the economic literature, some economists distinguish between the meanings of the words "enterprise" and "firm", and some consider them synonymous. In the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the concept of "firm" is absent.

The classic definition of a firm was given by J. Hicks: "Everything that is not a household is a firm." Consequently, in a market economy, an enterprise and a firm are unambiguous concepts. Both of them are engaged in entrepreneurial activity, act as independent economic entities, they are created to produce certain products, perform and provide services in order to meet the needs of people and obtain benefits (profit). Although in practice this is not always the case. For example, an enterprise, as is customary in Russia, is always a legal entity, but a firm is not always. So, individual private entrepreneurship and partnership can act as a firm, but as an individual.

Therefore, in modern conditions, although there is a single classification of firms and enterprises, there are some differences in organizational and legal forms.

In modern economic theory firm is a complex economic education, a special institution of the modern economic system. It is the primary organizational unit of a business that has the following characteristics:

Legal independence. The firm is a legal entity registered with the relevant government authorities;

Production independence. The firm independently decides what, where and how to produce and sell;

Financial independence. The firm independently distributes the income it receives.

Company - primary technological education.

In the activities of the company, internal and external conditions, or environment, are distinguished. Internal conditions, in addition to goals, include the structure of the firm, technology, personnel and finance. The company forms and develops this environment itself, guided by its own goals. External conditions are a system of competition, markets and prices that the firm itself cannot set and control. Through the system marketing the firm, as it were, enters into the external environment and lives according to its laws. An important factor in the external environment is the behavior of buyers (consumers) of products, as well as state legislation regulating entrepreneurial and other forms of economic activity, including tax legislation.

The general classification of firms and enterprises is based on

the following features:

by field of activity

by industry activity: mono-industry(specialized) and diversified(diversified);

by type of activity(industrial, trade, financial, intermediary, insurance, commercial);

on a territorial basis(national, regional, local, international, transnational, etc.);

by size,(large - in the USA more than 500 people, medium - up to 500 people, small - up to 100 people);

by ownership(state, municipal, private and collective);

by the nature of education(contractual and statutory);

by organizational and legal characteristics

Special attention should be paid to corporations that can act as a concern, trust, syndicate, cartel, association, consortium, financial and industrial groups.

Concern - it is a diversified joint-stock company, the members of which are bound by common interests, contracts, capital, participation in joint activities. The merger takes place around the parent enterprise (holding), which holds the shares of all participants and controls them. Participants located in different regions retain economic independence, remain legal entities, being subsidiaries or branches of the parent company.

Trust- association of firms (enterprises), in which the participants lose their production and trade independence and are guided by the decisions of the head center.

Syndicate - association of firms (enterprises) producing homogeneous products. The sale of products is carried out through a single trade network, office. The participants retain their industrial and legal independence, but lose their commercial independence.

Cartel- This is an agreement between firms (enterprises) of the same industry on the prices of their products or services, on the division of the sales market and on the share in the total volume of production. Moreover, many cartels are specialized: production, marketing, patent, price, etc.

Consortium is an association of firms (enterprises) for the purpose of conducting a large-scale financial transaction.

Association is a voluntary association of independent individuals and legal entities for the purpose of mutual cooperation. These are, as a rule, forms of association in one industry in order to eliminate excessive competition.

Financial and industrial groups(FIG) is an association of financial, industrial, insurance, trade, intellectual companies with their material, financial and other resources.

In accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (since January 1, 1995), some types of enterprises have the right of a legal entity. (These can be both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Commercial are those enterprises that pursue the goal - profit making and its distribution among the participants. Non-profit enterprises do not aim to make a profit, but fulfill certain public orders. For example, funds, established on the basis of voluntary property contributions for social, charitable, cultural, educational or other purposes.)

1. Sole proprietor, individual (family) private enterprise. It is created by an individual citizen or members of his family on the basis of private property rights. Has its own name indicating the name of the entrepreneur, is a legal entity.

2. State unitary enterprise. It is created by the state. In this case, the property is not the property of the enterprise, but the state. This is the essence of the concept "unitary".

The property cannot be distributed by contributions or shares between the participants. It is a legal entity.

3. Municipal unitary enterprise. Formed by local governments. The property belongs to the municipality, that is, it acts as municipal property, is a legal entity.

4. General partnership is an association of several citizens and legal entities for joint business activities on the basis of an agreement. The property belongs to all the participants on a share basis, and the partners personally participate in the affairs of the partnership, being co-owners and self-governing affairs of the enterprise. The profit is divided in proportion to the shares, and are jointly and severally liable.

5. Faith partnerships(limited or mixed partnership) is an association of several citizens and legal entities for joint activities. Consists of two categories of participants: contributing members participating in economic activities and bearing responsibility, and depositors-commandists, not taking part in entrepreneurial activities, but receiving profit and bearing responsibility within the limits of their contribution (share). The commanders must know well and trust their shares to those who organize the case. This does not exclude the possibility of losses from unsuccessful business conduct, and therefore is called "limited partnership".

6. Limited Liability Company- (LLC) is an association of capitals, not persons. It is established by one or more persons. The authorized capital is divided into shares. However, participants are not liable for obligations. They bear the risk of losses up to the value of their contributions.

7. Additional liability company(ALC) is a pooling of capital by one or more persons. The authorized capital is divided into shares. All participants are jointly and severally responsible. In the event of bankruptcy of one of the participants, his liability for the obligations of the company is distributed among the other participants in proportion to their contributions.

Joint-stock company - this is an association of several citizens or legal entities for a specific entrepreneurial activity by acquiring (issuing) shares. The authorized capital is distributed over a certain number of shares. Shareholders bear the risk of loss only up to the value of their shares.

The supreme governing body of a JSC is the general meeting of shareholders, which elects the governing and supervisory bodies: the board of directors, the board of directors, and the audit commission. Virtually all decisions are made by shareholders who own controlling, block of shares, which represents 50% of the issued shares plus 1 share. Practically in modern conditions, when shares are placed everywhere, the decision-making can be influenced by shareholders who have even 10-15% of the total number of issued shares.

Shares - it is a security claiming a dividend (part of the profit). Shares can be “registered”, where the name of the shareholder is indicated, “bearer” shares, which are anonymous, “ordinary” - voting at the shareholders' meeting and giving the right to participate in the management of JSC, “privileged” - not having the right to vote at the general meeting of shareholders. However, in the event of the liquidation of a joint-stock company, the value of the property is paid to them in the first place, in the case of receiving small incomes, the dividend also goes to them in the first place.

AO is of a closed and open type.

8. Open Joint Stock Company(JSC) has the right to distribute (sell) the issued shares on the side.

9. Closed joint stock company distributes its shares only among its founders within the JSC.

10. Production cooperative (artel) - voluntary association of citizens for joint production or other economic activities based on personal labor participation and the combination of property shares (housing cooperatives, fishing cooperatives, artisanal associations, etc.). Production cooperatives are mainly developed in agriculture. The number of members of the cooperative cannot be less than 5 people.

11. Consumer cooperatives - these are voluntary associations of citizens on the basis of share contributions in order to meet material and other needs. Business income is distributed among its members.

12. Business combinations. These include unions, trusts, concerns, conglomerates, FPK, holding companies, which were mentioned above in the head of the firm.

13. Branches and representative offices an enterprise is the establishment by an enterprise in certain regions (territories) of its representative offices, branches, offices, etc. They operate on the basis of the Charter of the parent enterprise.

14. Lease and buyout enterprise- a lease enterprise created by the labor collective on the basis of state and municipal enterprises, as well as other enterprises, which can be converted into the property of the labor collective by means of redemption upon the expiration of the lease term.

15. Public and religious organizations (enterprises) - it is a voluntary association of citizens on the basis of a community of their interests to meet non-material (spiritual) needs. Mostly they are not commercial, but they can carry out entrepreneurial activities to achieve certain goals for which they
created (candles, crosses, chains in churches, etc.).

In general, the choice of the type of economic activity depends on the wishes of the founders, financial and other production resources.

Associations of people allow them to achieve their goals faster and more efficiently, especially when it comes to business or social projects. Companies and organizations are various forms of interaction between citizens and legal entities, which at first glance are synonymous. However, in fact, there are differences between them that affect the understanding of these categories.

What is a company and an organization?

Company Is a legal entity that conducts business and is registered in accordance with the established procedure. A certain legal form corresponds to it: LLC, OJSC, ODO and others. The company can be public and private, as well as mixed.

Organization Is an association of individuals or legal entities to achieve common goals. The number of participants is 2 or more, and the activity can be commercial or non-commercial. The organization is engaged in production, implements a social project, is a consumer union, etc.

Comparison of company and organization

What is the difference between a company and an organization? Based on the data obtained, the company is always created to make a profit, and the organization may have a non-profit character. This is determined not only by the status of the association, but also by its organizational and legal form.

Companies are registered as LLC, ODO, CJSC, and organizations can operate informally. In some countries of the world, however, such activity is illegal.

The company always has a management that makes decisions and determines the development of the association.

An organization can have a qualitatively different structure, including a network type, where there is no formal administration, and all participants are endowed with equal rights.

The difference between a company and an organization is as follows:

1. The purpose of the activity. A company is always a for-profit enterprise, while an organization may be non-profit.
2. Registration and formal status. A public organization can conduct its activities in a free manner. Registration is required for the company's commercial activities.
3. Composition. A company is always represented by one legal entity, and an organization can include a whole group of companies.
4. Hierarchy. The company is a hierarchical structure with a manager. An organization can have an online status with only leaders and not administrators.

An enterprise is a special object of civil rights, a legal entity that is a production and commercial organization; an independent economic entity created for the production and sale of products, the performance of work and / or the provision of services in order to meet public and private needs and generate income with profit; industrial or commercial property and land complex, created for the implementation of entrepreneurial activities.

Organization - a set of people, groups united to achieve a goal, solve any problems based on the principles of division of labor, responsibilities and a hierarchical structure.

A firm is an economically and legally independent business entity, a financially, socially and organizationally separate participant in economic activity that has its own name, as well as a well-known and generally recognized trademark.

The simplest logical analysis of the terms-concepts under consideration shows that all of them can be combined into one group - a group of economic entities, one way or another, differing from each other in one way or another.

An interesting distinctive feature of these types of business entities is the possibility, if necessary, if they have their own production, service, trade or office property and land complex, to somehow assess their market value, for example, in the event of an expected change in the owner or founder of such entities.

The term "business entity" in publications on valuation activities should be used as a legal concept in the legal sense when considering the legal issues of this activity.

In other cases, the use of this term should be avoided in favor of specifying it for each assessed economic object.

The concept of "enterprise" according to the above definitions formally falls under the concept of "organization". Some very few specialists, mainly teachers, when speaking of organizations mean enterprises, but it would never occur to anyone to name organizations

enterprises. Historically, enterprises are called production, trade and service economic objects, the fundamental goal of which is to obtain a normal income and normal profit, as well as an all-round steady increase in the current market value.

each of them. Normal incomes and profits are such sizes of these indicators that are achieved with the full use of all available production, trade and service resources.

There are a great many types of enterprises. The main, most massive of them are factories (metallurgy, mechanical engineering, machine tool building, oil refining, etc.), factories (light industry, especially food and textile), shipyards (shipbuilding), combines (mining and processing industry, coal mines, oil fields, gas production, power plants, etc., etc. Trade and service enterprises differ in no less variety. As a rule, enterprises have their own material and technical base in the form of

property and land complexes and the corresponding intangible assets, some of which are accounted for in the existing systems of accounting and reporting, and the rest are not accounted for. The specifics of enterprises that have the appropriate property and land

complexes, allows, when such a need arises, to determine their market value using the methods of the income approach, replacement cost or replacement cost. Methods of purely costly and comparative approaches to solving such a problem, as a rule, turn out to be

insufficiently correct and reasonable, since in the first case it is not possible to take into account that part of intangible assets that are not reflected in accounting, and in the second case, it is difficult to select a suitable analogue enterprise.