The difference between a firm and an enterprise.

The subjects of legal relations are called differently: a company, a legal entity, an organization. But it is especially difficult to distinguish a firm and an enterprise from each other, because the difference between these concepts is subtle. Nevertheless, understanding the differences is very important for future leaders, personnel officers and lawyers who will be able to correctly use the terms in their professional activities.

Definition

Firm - a commercial company carrying out business activities on a legal basis. A prerequisite for such work is official registration, the presence of constituent documents, assets, reporting. A firm can mean any legal form, be it LLC, OJSC or ODO.

An enterprise is an organizational and legal unit that carries out commercial activities for the production and sale of goods, and the provision of services. As a rule, we are talking about large companies that occupy a serious place in the market. The company includes a significant amount of assets, including real estate, capital goods, accounts receivable and payable, financial assets and exclusive rights.

Comparison

Thus, these concepts are related by their essence: development, profit, business. Otherwise, the differences are of a purely practical nature, since there are no legal definitions of a firm and an enterprise. Rather, we are talking about well-established traditions adopted in business. So, the scope of the concept of a firm is extremely wide: it includes both legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. It includes, among other things, the category of the enterprise.

In this case, the firm is called the property complex, regardless of scale. It can be either a small retail outlet or a group of companies united into a single holding. An enterprise can only be considered a business entity that has solid assets. These can be city-forming organizations that have a significant impact on the business life of the region. At the same time, enterprises were originally called state-owned objects, but at the moment this practice has exhausted itself in connection with the active privatization of business entities.

Conclusions TheDifference.ru

  1. The scope of concepts. The category “firm” is much broader and includes “enterprise”.
  2. Scale. A firm can be called any business entity, an enterprise - only those organizations that have a significant amount of assets (real estate, finance, working capital, etc.).
  3. Form of ownership. As a rule, the term "enterprise" is used in relation to public organizations, a firm - to private ones.
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