AQA A Level Business Studies Paper 2: Business 2 June 2023 question paper 7132/2

Read the information below and then answer the questions that follow.

AJS plc

AJS plc is a manufacturer of non-recyclable packaging. This packaging is widely used by takeaway food outlets. AJS plc plans to invest £500 000 in new technology to increase capacity and make its factory more capital intensive.

Appendix A Data on proposed investment (produced by AJS plc’s operations manager)

Appendix B UK market for non-recyclable takeaway food packaging

Appendix C UK market for recyclable takeaway food packaging

Appendix D Selected Human Resource data 2022

Appendix E Selected Financial data for AJS plc

Calculate the Net Present Value for AJS plc’s proposed investment.

Using Appendix E, calculate the Return on Capital Employed for AJS plc in 2022.

Analyse why AJS plc has decided to become more capital intensive.

With reference to the data provided, would you advise a potential investor to buy shares in AJS plc?

Justify your view.

Read the information below and then answer the questions that follow.

Homeworking

Homeworking (or teleworking) is the action of working from home, using the Internet, email and the telephone to link the employee and the business remotely.

The number of people working from home has been rising steadily for several years as communications technology has improved.

Some businesses now adopt homeworking as the normal practice. For example, several financial institutions have reduced the amount of office space they own or rent in city centres. The wider impact of the change has been seen through fewer commuting journeys.

There have been some concerns over increased homeworking due to a reduction in face-to-face communication between employees. There has also been a decline in sales for businesses, such as coffee shops, that rely on office staff as customers.

Some sectors, such as transportation and wholesale, provide few opportunities for people to work from home. Other sectors, such as IT, finance and insurance, provide more homeworking opportunities to staff.

Of people in employment, 36% worked at least partly from home in 2020.

Using Table 1, calculate the percentage change in the number of people working at least partly from home between 2019 and 2020.

Analyse one way the balance sheet of a business (its statement of financial position) might be affected if more of its employees work from home.

The role of a manager has different elements.

Analyse the impact of the increase in homeworking by office staff on the way that their managers fulfil their role.

Would increased homeworking improve the performance of businesses that use Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line to measure their success?

Justify your view.

Read the information below and then answer the questions that follow.

Simply Bake plc

Palm oil is a cheap oil ingredient used in the manufacture of many everyday items. Production of palm oil often involves farmers clearing rainforests. The destruction of this habitat has led to the loss of many animal species, including half of the world’s orangutans.

Powerful campaign groups with many members, such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Foundation, have highlighted the issue. As a result, consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of using palm oil.

Simply Bake plc is a supplier of cakes to supermarkets, who then retail them as their ‘own brand’ products. For many years, palm oil has been an important ingredient in Simply Bake plc’s products, allowing it to meet the demand for cheap food.

In 2018, a small campaign group, Action against Palm Oil (APO), criticised Simply Bake plc. APO had carried out a survey using a sample of 100 of its 400 members to represent the views of UK consumers. The survey found that 67% of respondents wanted the government to ban the use of palm oil.

High-profile media campaigns have increasingly drawn attention to the issue of palm oil production. By 2019, supermarkets had noticed increasing numbers of enquiries from their customers about palm oil and environmental damage.

Finding alternative ingredients is difficult and expensive, but in 2020 Simply Bake plc announced that it will have changed all its recipes to remove palm oil by 2025.

Explain why APO’s survey findings may not represent the views of UK consumers.

Explain how stakeholder mapping would help Simply Bake plc decide how it responds to criticism from APO.

Simply Bake plc decided to remove palm oil from its products.

With reference to Lewin’s force field analysis, analyse why this decision was made.

‘Businesses will never act in a socially responsible way unless they are forced to do so by governments.’

To what extent is this true for all businesses?