N-Bus Mock2.23

Cambridge International AS & A Level
BUSINESS 9609/23
Paper 2 Business Concepts 2 BusinessMay/June
Mock2024-8
1 hour 30 minutes
You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.

* 0 3 2 4 9 2 5 1 1 0 *
You will need: Answer booklet (enclosed)
INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer all questions.
● Follow the instructions on the front cover of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper,
ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.
INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 60.
● The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.
DC (SL) 332222/1
© UCLES 2024 [Turn over
2
1 Recruitment Process (RP)
RP is a private limited company based in country Z. RP is an employment agency that

operates in a dynamic business environment. To survive in the market RP must be efficient
and maintain a good reputation. RP uses social media to attract customers and relies
on word-of-mouth recommendations. RP has recently won an award for its diversity and
equality practices. 5
RP’s customers provide details of the roles and number of employees required. RP quotes a
price to its customer and then agrees a contract to provide its services at the price quoted.
Ray, Managing Director, has asked Adjil, Finance Director, to provide a budget breakdown
of a recent customer contract. RP’s staff are specialist recruiters who find the appropriate
employees for each job role. 10
Table 1.1 RP’s budget for a recent customer contract, March 2024
Job role Number of Specialist Cost per specialist Total cost

employees recruiters recruiter ($000)
required required ($000)
Warehouse 70 1 100 100 15
Sales 225 3 120 360
Technology 145 3 140 420
Management 10 2 190 380
Total 450 1260
Adjil noted that the actual cost per employee recruited showed an adverse variance of $500. 20
Ray is concerned that the budget does not accurately show the costs to RP. Ray thinks this
is because of inefficient practices in the recruitment process.
(a) (i) Identify one element of a dynamic business environment. [1]
(ii) Explain the term employment agency. [3]
(b) (i) Refer to Table 1.1 and other information. Calculate RP’s actual cost per hire for the
customer contract in March 2024. [3]
(ii) Explain one benefit to RP of using a budget. [3]
(c) Analyse two methods RP could use to select sales employees. [8]
(d) Evaluate the impact on RP of diversity and equality in the workplace. [12]
© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

3
2 Festival Wear (FW)
FW is a partnership started by two friends, Maz and Jane. FW manufactures and sells high
quality T-shirts at $40 each. The business can manufacture 35 000 T-shirts per month using
mass customisation. The T-shirts are only sold at music festivals and concerts and are
customised to each event. FW has never advertised the T-shirts, relying on a sales team to
attend a festival or concert and personally sell the T-shirts. 5
Current costs:
• variable: $10 per T-shirt

• fixed: $200 000 per month.
Sales average 27 000 T-shirts per month. Currently the sales team is paid a monthly salary,
but Maz is proposing a new payment method in order to increase sales volume. This will 10
mean a lower monthly salary but a commission of $2 per T-shirt will be paid. Maz estimates
that sales volume would increase to 30 000 per month.
Costs if the new payment method is introduced:
• variable: $12 per T-shirt

• fixed: $182 000 per month. 15
This proposal has been discussed with the sales team. Some members of the team are
enthusiastic about the proposal, but others are not happy with what they see as a reduction
in their pay.
The business is expanding and considering moving to a bigger factory. This would require a
$4 million investment in new machinery and staff training. 20
Jane would also like to consider methods to increase sales volume. She has suggested that
FW should expand its product portfolio to manufacture other items such as baseball caps.
(a) (i) Identify one fixed cost. [1]
(ii) Explain the term mass customisation. [3]
(b) (i) Calculate FW’s break-even output per month if the new payment method is introduced.
[3]
(ii) Explain one advantage to FW’s employees of the new payment method. [3]
(c) Analyse two external sources of finance that FW could use to invest in new machinery. [8]
(d) Evaluate whether FW should expand its product portfolio to increase its sales volume. [12]
© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

4
BLANK PAGE
Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.
To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.
Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.
© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

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Cambridge International AS & A Level

You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.

You will need: Answer booklet (enclosed)

This document has 4 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

1 Recruitment Process (RP)

RP is a private limited company based in country Z. RP is an employment agency that

Job role Number of Specialist Cost per specialist Total cost

Warehouse 70 1 100 100 15

Sales 225 3 120 360

Technology 145 3 140 420

Management 10 2 190 380

Total 450 1260

(a) (i) Identify one element of a dynamic business environment. [1]

(ii) Explain the term employment agency. [3]

(ii) Explain one benefit to RP of using a budget. [3]

© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

2 Festival Wear (FW)

• variable: $10 per T-shirt

Costs if the new payment method is introduced:

• variable: $12 per T-shirt

(a) (i) Identify one fixed cost. [1]

(ii) Explain the term mass customisation. [3]

© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

© UCLES 2024 9609/23/M/J/24

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