IB Business and Management Standard Level (SL) Practice Exam

A company is a business owned by shareholders that has a separate legal identity created through a certificate of incorporation. This separate personality lets the company own assets, enter contracts, and be liable in its own name, independent of its owners. The certificate of incorporation is the official document that registers the company and endows it with this legal independence. In contrast, a deed of partnership describes a non-corporate partnership arrangement, and the Articles of Association are the internal rules for running a company, not the entity itself. So the description fits a company.