The 2026 statement hands you a company, a few paragraphs, and a list of words. Paper 1 always opens with definitions, so this list is the closest thing to free marks you will ever get. Learn the words properly and the harder questions get easier too, because you can then talk about Abraca in the right language.
Most students read the terminology list once, think “I know what concrete is”, and move on. That is a mistake, and here is why.
The words on that list are the words the examiner will use to write the questions. If the list says aggregates, then somewhere in the paper there is a question about ABC’s raw materials. If it says solar panels and plastic-shredding machinery — neither of which appear in the four paragraphs you have been given — that is the IB quietly telling you the full case study takes ABC somewhere new. Treat the list as a spoiler, not a glossary.
It also helps to see, in one picture, what this company actually does. Abraca is really two businesses bolted together, and almost every term belongs to one side or the other.
These are proper Business Management terms. The examiner expects a textbook-quality definition, and then expects you to use the word correctly for the rest of the paper.
| Term | Plain-English definition | Where it shows up at ABC |
|---|---|---|
| Publicly held company | A business whose shares are sold on a stock exchange, so anyone can buy a piece of it. Shareholders own part of the firm and expect a slice of the profit as dividends. | ABC can raise money by issuing shares — handy for funding new factories — but its managers answer to shareholders who want returns now, not in ten years. |
| E-waste processing factory | A plant built to take in thrown-away electronics and pull valuable materials back out of them for resale. | ABC opened its first one in 2024. It runs through roughly 100 tonnes of circuit boards a week and recovers hundreds of kilograms of gold a year. |
| Jewellery makers | Firms that design and produce jewellery, buying gold and silver as their raw materials. | ABC’s customer for recovered gold. Notice this is a completely different customer group from construction firms. |
| Efficiencies | Getting the same output from fewer inputs, or more output from the same inputs, without dropping quality. | One of ABC’s stated priorities in concrete. Think lower cost per tonne, less wasted energy, fewer machine breakdowns. |
| Environment | The air, water, land and living systems that a business can damage or protect through the way it operates. | Reducing environmental impact is a stated ABC priority — awkward, because cement is one of the dirtiest things you can make. |
| Market-orientated | Deciding what to make by starting with what customers want, found out through market research, instead of just selling whatever the factory already produces. | ABC says it wants to become more market-orientated. In a B2B market that means asking builders what mix they need rather than pushing a standard product. |
| Growth | An increase in the size of a business, measured by revenue, profit, market share or number of employees. | Also a stated priority. The interesting exam question is which growth — more concrete, or more e-waste? |
These are not Business Management terms at all — they are industry words. You will not be asked to define them for two marks, but if you cannot use them confidently your answers will sound vague, and vague answers lose application marks.
| Word | What it means | Why the IB listed it |
|---|---|---|
| Aggregates | The bulky raw materials — sand, gravel, crushed stone, limestone, clay — that get mixed together to make concrete and cement. | It is ABC’s main cost of production, and it is the thing recycled material could replace. |
| Business-to-business (B2B) | Selling to other firms rather than to individual shoppers. Usually longer contracts, bigger orders, and relationships that matter more than adverts. | Both of ABC’s businesses are B2B. Any marketing answer must reflect that. |
| Carbon-intensive | A process that releases a lot of carbon dioxide for each unit it produces, usually because it burns fuel or needs very high temperatures. | Cement making is carbon-intensive, and so was the old way of getting gold out of circuit boards. |
| Circuit boards | The flat green boards inside phones, laptops and consoles. They hold tiny amounts of gold and silver, plus some genuinely nasty metals. | They are the raw material for ABC’s second business. |
| Clay and limestone | Two raw materials dug out of the ground and heated to make cement. | Quarrying them damages land, which is an ethical and environmental issue for ABC. |
| Concrete | Cement, water and aggregates mixed together. The most widely used building material on the planet. | ABC’s core product and the source of most of its revenue. |
| E-waste | Electronic products people have thrown away because they are broken or out of date. | ABC’s growth market. Most of it is currently buried rather than recycled. |
| Landfill | A site where waste is buried in the ground instead of being reused. | The thing ABC’s new factory is meant to reduce. |
| Plastic-shredding machinery | Equipment that chops plastic waste into small pieces so it can be recycled. | ABC does not own any yet. Listing it hints at where the full case study goes. |
| Recycling | Collecting used materials and reprocessing them so they can go back into production. | The idea that links both halves of the company. |
| Solar panels | Devices that turn sunlight into electricity. | Another hint. Old solar panels are e-waste too, and they contain toxic metals. |
| Toxic metals | Metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium that harm people and ecosystems if they are not handled, stored or disposed of properly. | The hidden cost of e-waste processing: safety rules, training and legal risk. |
The single most common way to lose a mark here is writing one good idea in twenty words. The examiner is looking for two separate pieces of information. Give them two, clearly.
Define the term diversification. [2]
Define the term carbon-intensive. [2]
Define the term market orientation. [2]
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