Enterprises, establishments and industries

Institutional units are defined in chapter 4. The present chapter is concerned with production activities and the units that undertake them, starting with institutional units and then considering parts of institutional units. An enterprise is the view of an institutional unit as a producer of goods and services. The term enterprise may refer to a corporation, a quasi-corporation, an NPI or an unincorporated enterprise. Since corporations and NPIs other than NPISHs are primarily set up to engage in production, the whole of their accounting information relates to production and associated accumulation activities. Government, households and NPISHs necessarily engage in consumption and may engage in production also; indeed government and NPISHs always engage in production and many, but not all, households do. As explained in chapter 4, whenever the necessary accounting information exists, the production activity of these units is separated from their other activities into a quasi-corporation. It is when this separation is not possible that an unincorporated enterprise exists within the government unit, household or NPISH. It is thus possible to define an unincorporated enterprise as follows. An unincorporated enterprise represents the production activity of a government unit, NPISH or household that cannot be treated as the production activity of a quasi-corporation.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development