Introduction

Markets and customers are among the most important dimensions of business enterprises. Businesses are economic entities that clearly have to engage in some form of commercial transactions to make money and sustain their well being. This includes developing economic solutions, making investments, covering expenses, obtaining cash flow, and achieving positive returns. While businesses can make money in many ways including licensing technologies, renting property, and earning interest, ultimately most businesses depend on the sale of goods and services to sustain their success. The exchanges of products and services for money can be characterized as markets where producers and customers interact to achieve positive and mutually beneficial outcomes.

Markets are broad generalizations about commercial exchanges, purchasing patterns, buyer behaviors, and many other facets pertaining to the sale and purchase of products and services. They are the pivotal spaces where the economic forces of business enterprises intersect and create the realities of the commercial and financial worlds. During most of the last century economists usually had fairly precise definitions about specific markets and economic exchanges. They were often characterized in terms of government classifications and industry structures based on data collection and analyses. Today, many markets are fragmented and it is becoming more and more difficult to identify and classify exactly what the markets are and how they behave. Market characteristics can change quickly and new aspects take hold.