The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private, nonprofit organization with a mission to promote and foster ethical relationships between businesses and the public. The BBB is best known for its complaint service, where dissatisfied consumers contact local BBB offices to resolve disputes with businesses.

A beta coefficient is a measure of a stock’s volatility relative to the market for all stocks. As an integral component of the theoretical capital ASSET pricing model that is used to determine the required return for a particular stock, beta coefficients are measures of a stock’s risk.

See COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS; EMPLOYEE BENEFITS.

Benchmarking is the process of identifying and learning from the best business practices in a company, an industry, or the world. As stated by C. Jackson Grayson Jr., chairman of the American Productivity and Quality Center, the essence of benchmarking is, “Why reinvent the wheel if I can learn from someone else who has already done it?” The goals of benchmarking typically include cost reductions, quality improvement, and new product or process ideas.

Barter is the exchange of one service or commodity for another without exchanging MONEY. Barter was used by primitive peoples and is still practiced in some parts of the world. A barter economy requires a “coincidence of needs” - that is, a person having something to trade must find another who wants it and has something acceptable to offer in exchange.

See TRADE BARRIERS.

Barriers to entry are restrictions preventing or discouraging new competitors from participating in a market. Barriers to entry most often occur in monopolistic and oligopolistic markets, reducing the number of competing firms and increasing prices and profits for those firms protected by barriers to entry.

See BUSINESS FAILURE; CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is an international organization supporting cooperation among central banks and other agencies. The Bank’s mission is to ensure international monetary and financial stability.

A banking system provides financial intermediation, taking deposits from individuals and households with excess cash balances and making LOANS to individuals and businesses wishing to borrow funds for CONSUMPTION or INVESTMENT.

The Baldrige Award - formally known as Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award - is an annual award designed to recognize quality management.

The balance sheet is a statement of the financial position and net worth of a firm. Built on the accounting equation assets = liabilities + owners’ equity, the balance sheet is a two-columned statement with ASSETS listed on the left side and liabilities and owners’ EQUITY listed on the right side.

See TRADE BALANCE

Balance of payments is a summary of a country’s economic exchanges with the rest of the world for a given period of time. Typically, countries trade goods, services, and financial ASSETS. The balance of payments shows whether a country is accruing debits or credits in its trade with other countries.

Bad debts, also known as uncollectible accounts, arise from ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE that ultimately prove to be bad credit risks. When an account receivable is determined to be uncollectible, it should be written off—that is, removed from the collection of accounts receivable.