As quoted on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website The Superfund, created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980, is a TRUST fund used to clean up “abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped hazardous waste that poses a current or future threat to human health or the environment.”

See JUST CAUSE.

The Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA), better known as Sallie Mae, was established in 1972 as a federally chartered, stockholder-owned CORPORATION providing funding for education. Because most beginning college students have little INCOME or credit history, it is difficult for them to borrow for their education.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a marketing / management tool used to evaluate a company’s competitive position.

Business strategic planning is a dynamic, controlled, and continuous process of review that focuses corporate thinking on consistency of purpose and long-term economic gain. It requires answers for questions like why the business exists, who its clients are, what unique PRODUCTs differentiate it from competitors, where it wants to go, what marketing and financial strategies it needs, and how the identified strategies can be implemented to move the business forward.

Strategic alliances are agreements between companies to work together. Alliances can be created in many forms, through referral networks, CONTRACTs, limited PARTNERSHIPs, general partnerships, or corporate JOINT VENTURES. The basis for strategic alliances is the complementary strengths of the companies agreeing to work together.

Stock-rating systems are rankings generated by analysts at stock-brokerage firms. Stock ratings are an important and controversial part of STOCK MARKET trading. Traditionally the major, full-service brokerage firms provide INVESTMENT advice to clients as part of the services offered.

Stock OPTIONS are the right to purchase shares of a company’s stock at a given price for a set period of time. Individuals can purchase stock options for most major companies through stock exchanges. These stock options give the purchaser the right to sell or purchase 100 shares of stock at any time until the expiration date.

A stock is a financial instrument with an infinite life because it has no maturity date.

Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) is a widely used ADVERTISING-rate information source in the United States. Established in 1921, SRDS, maintains information about advertising rates, circulation, and personnel contacts for more than 80,000 magazines, newspapers, television, radio, and electronic advertising alternatives.

The term standard of living refers to a measure of consumer welfare. Economists measure a country’s standard of living by the level of real per capita INCOME. If a country’s real output (output after adjustment for INFLATION) increases at a rate faster than the population growth rate, its standard of living increases.

See ISO STANDARDS.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P;), a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill Inc., is a leading U.S. financial services company. Standard & Poor’s is best known for its S&P; 500 Index and its S&P; bond-rating system.

Stakeholders are the various individuals and groups affected by and influencing business decisions. Traditionally in American business, companies perceive three groups as having an interest in the affairs of an enterprise: employees, investors, and customers.

The Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) is an international nonprofit organization with a mission to “enhance the skills of knowledge professional in order to help their companies achieve and maintain a competitive advantage.” Established in 1986, there are now over 70 SCIP chapters around the world and members from over 50 nations.

Social security is the general term used in the United States to refer to three major government-administered programs: • Old Age and Survivors Income (OASI) • SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME (SSI) • Medicaid The Social Security Act of 1935 was legislated in response to the GREAT DEPRESSION, during which millions of Americans lost their jobs and had few resources on which to fall back.

Socially responsible investing is making investment decisions with consideration of social and ethical issues as part of the determination process.

Social loafing occurs when a person contributes less effort to a group task than he or she would when working on the same task alone. For example, research has shown that two people pulling on one rope together often exert less total strain on the rope than a combination of their individual efforts. The “team” atmosphere actually may tempt individuals to decrease their efforts rather than work harder.

Socialism is a political and economic theory advocating the reduction of poverty and improvement in social wellbeing through the collective control and allocation of RESOURCES. Every nation has some degree of socialism.

Social facilitation occurs when one’s behavior or performance is affected in some manner by the presence of other people. Either the simple presence of a coactor, someone performing the same task but who is not in COMPETITION, or the presence of an audience may influence how a person does a job.

A social audit is an analysis of a company’s environmental and social impact. Social audits evaluate a company’s relationships with its employees. SHAREHOLDERS, and the local communities affected by its activities. Many CORPORATIONs have developed BUSINESS ETHICS standards.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, officially the Tariff Act of 1930, significantly raised tariffs on imports into the United States.

The Small Business Administration (SBA), created in 1953, provides LOANS, loan guarantees, and business counseling and advice to owners and would-be owners of small businesses. In 2000, the SBA portfolio included over 200,000 loans worth more than $45 billion. The SBA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

A sinking fund is a series of regular payments to provide for the orderly retirement (payoff) of a bond issue. Sinking- fund provisions may call for the annual retirement of a portion of a bond issue or may call for annual deposits into a fund, often managed by a trustee, which will accrue to the amount sufficient to retire the BONDS at their maturity.