business (company, enterprise or firm) is a legally recognized
organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers.[1]
Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies. Most businesses are
privately owned. A business is typically formed to earn profit that will
increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself. The owners and
operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or
generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk.
Notable exceptions include cooperative enterprises and state-owned enterprises.
Businesses can also be formed not-for-profit or be state-owned.
The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an
individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work.
The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the
singular usage (above) to mean a particular company or corporation, the
generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the music
business" and compound forms such as agribusiness, or the broadest meaning to
include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services.
However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of
business, is a matter of debate and complexity of meanings
.