Below are this chapter's featured key terms. The textbook's full glossary is also available for online searching.
 

baby boomers	The generation of children born between 1946 and 1964. (See page(s) See page 77 in your textbook.)
baby boomlet	Canadians born after 1977; also described as Generation Y or the Net Generation. (See page(s) See page 78 in your textbook.)
barriers to entry	Business practices or conditions that make it difficult for new firms to enter the market. (See page(s) See page 87 in your textbook.)
blended family	Formed by the merging into a single household of two previously separated units. (See page(s) See page 78 in your textbook.)
census metropolitan area (CMA)	Geographic labour market areas having a population of 100 000 persons or more. (See page(s) See page 78 in your textbook.)
commercial online services	Companies that provide electronic information and marketing services to subscribers who are charged a monthly fee. (See page(s) See page 86 in your textbook.)
competition	The alternative firms that could provide a product to satisfy a specific market's needs. (See page(s) See page 86 in your textbook.)
Competition	Act The key legislation designed to protect competition and consumers in Canada. (See page(s) See page 90 in your textbook.)
consumerism	A grassroots movement started in the 1960s to increase the influence, power, and rights of consumers in dealing with institutions. (See page(s) See page 91 in your textbook.)
culture	The set of values, ideas, and attitudes of a homogeneous group of people that are transmitted from one generation to the next. (See page(s) See pages 33, 79 in your textbook.)
demographics	Describing the population according to selected characteristics such as their age, gender, ethnicity, income, and occupation. (See page(s) See page 75 in your textbook.)
discretionary income	The money that remains after paying for taxes and necessities. (See page(s) See page 83 in your textbook.)
disposable income	The money a consumer has left after paying taxes to use for necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing. (See page(s) See page 82 in your textbook.)
economy	The income, expenditures, and resources that affect the cost of running an organization or a household. (See page(s) See page 81 in your textbook.)
electronic commerce	Any activity that uses some form of electronic communication in the inventory, exchange, advertisement, distribution, and payment of goods and services. (See page(s) See page 85 in your textbook.)
environmental scanning	The process of continually acquiring information on events occurring outside the organization to identify and interpret potential trends. (See page(s) See page 74 in your textbook.)
extranet	A network that uses Internet-based technologies to permit communication between an organization and its suppliers, distributors, and other partners. (See page(s) See pages 86, 428 in your textbook.)
Generation X	The group of Canadians born between 1965 and 1976. (See page(s) See page 78 in your textbook.)
gross income	The total amount of money made in one year by a person, household, or family unit. (See page(s) See page 82 in your textbook.)
Internet	An integrated global network of computers that gives users access to information and documents. (See page(s) See page 85 in your textbook.)
intranet	An Internet/Web-based network used within the boundaries of an organization. (See page(s) See page 86 in your textbook.)
marketspace	An information- and communication-based electronic exchange environment mostly occupied by sophisticated computer and telecommunication technologies and digitized offerings. (See page(s) See page 85 in your textbook.)
mature households	Households headed by people over 50 years old. (See page(s) See page 76 in your textbook.)
regional marketing	Developing marketing plans to reflect specific area differences in taste preferences, perceived needs, or interests. (See page(s) See page 78 in your textbook.)
regulation	Restrictions the provincial and federal laws place on business with regard to the conduct of its activities. (See page(s) See page 89 in your textbook.)
restructuring	Striving for more efficient corporations that can compete globally by reducing duplicate efforts in multiple company locations, closing or changing unprofitable plants and offices, and laying off employees. (See page(s) See page 88 in your textbook.)
self-regulation	An alternative to government control where an industry attempts to police itself. (See page(s) See page 91 in your textbook.)
social forces	The demographic characteristics of the population and its values in the environment. (See page(s) See page 75 in your textbook.)
technology	Inventions or innovations from applied science or engineering research. (See page(s) See page 84 in your textbook.)
value consciousness	The concern for obtaining the best quality, features, and performance of a product or service for a given price. (See page(s) See page 81 in your textbook.)
World Wide Web	A part of the Internet that supports a retrieval system that formats information and documents into Web pages. (See page(s) See page 85 in your textbook.)