I think Wikipedia does this best... In economics, business is the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals, usually to generate profit. The singular "business" can be a legally-recognized entity within an economically free society, wherein individuals organize based on expertise and skills to bring about social and technological advancement. In predominantly capitalist economies, businesses are typically formed to earn profit and grow the personal wealth of their owners. Notable exceptions to this rule include many cooperatives, non-profit organizations, and government institutions. # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business A corporation is an artificial legal entity which, while being owned collectively by a number of natural persons or other legal entities, can exist completely separately from them. This separation gives the corporation unique powers which other legal entities lack. The extent and scope of its status and capacity is determined by the law of the place of incorporation. Investors and entrepreneurs often form joint stock companies and incorporate them to facilitate a business; as this form of business is now extremely prevalent, the term corporation is often used to refer specifically to such business corporations. Corporations may also be formed for local government (municipal corporation), political, religious, and charitable purposes (not-for-profit corporation), or government programs (government-owned corporation). # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation