the government code of california (section 16649.80 (b)) defines business
firm as "any foreign or domestic organization, association, corporation,
partnership, venture, or other entity, its subsidiary, or affiliate which
exists for profitmaking purposes or to otherwise secure economic advantage,
other than a financial institution."

(financial institutions also exist for profitmaking purposes or to otherwise
secure economic advantage.)

i think the only way to make profit and secure economic advantage is to sell
goods at a price higher than what they cost to produce or buy.

if you observe an organization in which the profit appears to increase, the
state of that organization has changed from a relatively disorganized state
to a more organized state. the same can be said of any system in which the
entropy appears to decrease. if you observe a system in which the entropy
appears to decrease, the state of that system has changed from a relatively
disorganized state to a more organized state. in other words, if you observe
an organization in which the profit appears to increase, it is the same as
saying that you observe a system (the organization) in which the entropy
appears to decrease.

what happens to the environment of an organization that exists for
profitmaking purposes or to otherwise secure economic advantage?

it is the change in entropy that ultimately provides us with the answer to
how systems will naturally evolve in one direction with time and not the
other: systems always evolve in time in such a way that the total entropy of
system + environment increases. if you observe a system in which the entropy
appears to decrease, you can be sure that somewhere there is a change in the
entropy of the environment large enough to make the total entropy change
positive. in other words, suppose we represent the change in the entropy of
the system with the letter A and the change in the entropy of the
environment with the letter B. then A + B is positive because the magnitude
of B is greater than the magnitude of A and the direction of B is positive
while the direction of A is negative. in the system the entropy appears to
decrease at the expense of the change in the entropy of the environment.

with respect to an organization that exists for profitmaking purposes or to
otherwise secure economic advantage, it is the change in profit that
ultimately provides us with the answer to how organizations will naturally
evolve in one direction with time and not the other: organizations always
evolve in time in such a way that the total profit of organization +
environment decreases. if you observe an organization in which the profit
appears to increase, you can be sure that somewhere there is a change in the
profit of the environment large enough to make the total profit change
negative. in other words, suppose we represent the change in the profit of
the organization with the letter C and the change in the profit of the
environment with the letter D. then C + D is negative because the magnitude
of D is greater than the magnitude of C and the direction of D is negative
while the direction of C is positive. in the organization the profit appears
to increase at the expense of the change in the profit of the environment.

while the entropy of an organization that exists for profitmaking purposes
or to otherwise secure economic advantage decreases, the entropy of the
environment increases. the magnitude of the change in the entropy of the
environment is greater than the magnitude of the change in the entropy of
the organization. the direction of the change in the entropy of the
environment is toward disorganization and disorder while the direction of
the change in the entropy of the organization is toward organization and
order.

overall (organization + environment), 1) we can't win. 2) we can't even
break even. 3) we can't get out of the game.