| Nagware | Software that routinely reminds users to pay money for it. The reminders are often in the form of popup messages. |
| Nash equilibrium | A set of strategies, one for each player in the game, such that each player’s strategy is a best response to the strategies chosen by everyone else. |
| National accounts | The system is used for measuring overall output and expenditure in a country. |
| National insurance | National insurance is a form of tax that everyone currently employed must pay in order to qualify for benefits, including the state pension. |
| Natural experiment | An empirical study exploiting naturally occurring statistical controls in which researchers do not have the ability to assign participants to treatment and control groups, as is the case in conventional experiments. Instead, differences in law, policy, weather, or other events can offer the opportunity to analyse populations as if they had been part of an experiment. The validity of such studies depends on the premise that the assignment of subjects to the naturally occurring treatment and control groups can be plausibly argued to be random. |
| Natural logarithm | See also: logarithmic scale. |
| Natural monopoly | A production process in which the long-run average cost curve is sufficiently downward-sloping to make it impossible to sustain competition among firms in this market. |
| NCOA | National Change of Address, a US Postal Service system under which about twenty service bureaus nationwide have exclusive use of the change of address forms filed by persons or businesses who are moving. These forms are keypunched, and can be used by the service bureau to update your tape of prospects to obtain their correct current address. A worthwhile service for mailers |
| Negative equity | When the value of an asset you have already bought becomes worth less than what you initially paid. |
| Negative feedback (process) | A process whereby some initial change sets in motion a process that dampens the initial change. See also: positive feedback (process). |
| Negative gearing | A descriptive term for an income producing investment that generates insufficient wealth to pay for the cost of the money that has been borrowed to purchase it. Investors sometimes use negative gearing when they expect the market price of the asset to rise significantly (as is common in financial manias). |
| Nepotism | Favoritism that rewards based upon friendship and association rather than merit. |
| Net | The amount of profit remaining when deductions – such as tax – have been made. |
| Net asset value | A way of measuring investment trusts. Take the total number of its assets minus its liabilities. |
| Net capital flows | The borrowing and lending tracked by the current account. See also: current account, current account deficit, current account surplus. |
| Net cash flow | The net cash flow refers to the balance remaining once the company’s inflow and outflow has been deducted. |
| Net change in cash | The change in the amount of cash flow from one accounting period to the next. This is found at the bottom of the Cash Flow Statement. |
| Net income | Gross income minus depreciation. See also: income, gross income, depreciation. |
| Net names | The actual names used in a mailing, after removing the duplicates and matches to your customer list. In some cases, you can rent names on a net-name basis. |
| Net present value | Calculating the value of a business by building a DCF Model and calculating the net present value (NPV) |
| Net profit | Measures a company’s profitability after expenses; commonly called the Bottom Line, as it expresses the overall financial performance of the company. (Also see Gross Profit) |
| Net worth | Assets less liabilities. See also: balance sheet, equity. |
| Network economies of scale | These exist when an increase in the number of users of an output of a firm implies an increase in the value of the output to each of them, because they are connected to each other. |
| Network effect | An effect that causes some products to increase in value as others buy additional units. The classic example is a phone. The more people who own a phone, the more value each owner receives from his own (he can call and be called by more people). |
| Network external effects | An external effect of one person’s action on another, occuring because the two are connected in a network. See also: external effect. |
| Networking | Networking usually involves meeting new people, who share a profession, industry, or interests. Networking involves exchanging ideas and information between these individuals. Unrelated to computer networking, professional networking often takes place in informal settings. |
| Neural Network | A type of modeling software on a PC which permits a marketer to determine the weights that should be applied to a large number of variables to predict the response or purchases by a target audience. |
| New deal | US President Franklin Roosevelt’s program, begun in 1933, of emergency public works and relief programs to employ millions of people. It established the basic structures for modern state social welfare programs, labour policies, and regulation. |
| Niche market | A way of finding a special product that appealed to only one group, and selling that product very profitably only to that group, ignored by others. |
| Nickel and dime | To charge significant prices via a series of small, seemingly inconsequential, charges. |
| Nickle | A five cent coin. Also slang for $500. |
| Niesr | National Institute of Economic and Social Research. |
| Nixie | A direct mail letter which has been returned to the sender because the address was wrong. Also, any undelivered piece of mail. Nixies are used to correct a list. |
| No bid contract | A contract awarded to a single vendor without any competitive process. It is generally used when there is an urgent need for timeliness or only a single vendor can be relied upon for a given need. Many observers see such contracts as a sign of potential ethical lapses, as they may be misused to funnel money to specific vendors with minimal oversight or transparency. |
| No reserve auction | An auction with no minimum sales price. |
| No true Scotsman | A commonly used argument intended to define the characteristics of a group in order to demonstrate that no member of that group would ever engage in a specified behavior. |
| Nominal interest rate | An interest rate that isn’t adjusted for inflation. |
| Nominal values | These values do not take inflation into account. |
| Nominal wage | The actual amount received in payment for work, in a particular currency. Also known as: money wage. See also: real wage. |
| Non compete clause | A section of a contract that limits one or more signatories from engaging in activities that may harm one or more other signatories. |
| Non-compete contract | A contract of employment containing a provision or agreement by which the worker cannot leave to work for a competitor. This may reduce the reservation option of the worker, lowering the wage that the employer needs to pay. |
| Non-excludable public good | A public good for which it is impossible to exclude anyone from having access. See also: artificially scarce good. |
| Non-executive director | This is a director who helps the company and offers an independent view on strategies and performance but is not actively involved in the day-to-day running. |
| Non-rival good | A good that, if available to anyone, is available to everyone at no additional cost. See also: rival good, non-excludable public good. |
| Normal profits | Corresponds to zero economic profit and means that the rate of profit is equal to the opportunity cost of capital. See also: economic profit, opportunity cost of capital. |
| Nth name | A software system whereby you can pick every 3rd or 4th or 250th name out of a file to use as a valid test of the file. To test a file of 400,000 with a test mailing of 40,000, you would pick every10th name. |
