The Business Environment: A Global Perspective

✍ Scribed by Ed Thompson, Ian Worthington, Chris Britton

• Publisher: Pearson
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 535
• Edition: 9
• Category: Library

✦ Table of Contents

Front Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Brief contents
Contents
Contributors
Preface to the Ninth Edition
Publisher's Acknowledgements
Guided tour
Part One INTRODUCTION
1 Business organisations: the external environment
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The business organisation and its environment
The general or contextual environment
Mini case: The impact of regional economic conditions
The immediate or operational environment
Analysing the business environment
Mini case: Fresh but not so easy
Central themes
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Facing the unexpected
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
2 Business organisations: the internal environment
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The concept of the organisation: an initial comment
Understanding the nature of organisations: theories of organisation and management
Other theoretical approaches
Organisational structures
Mini case: 'Into the Dragon's Den'
Mini case: Mergers and competition
The virtual organisation
Structural change
Aspects of functional management
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Reshuffle at Microsoft
Case study: Thomas Cook expansion
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
3 The global context of business
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Globalisation versus internationalisation
The role of multinational enterprises
Mini case: Transfer pricing
Globalisation and business
Mini case: Currency crisis in emerging markets
Globalisation and the small and medium-sized firm
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Global financial markets – too big to fail
Case study: FDI flows
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
4 De-globalising factors: sovereignty, conflicts and political priorities
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
What is globalisation?
Bretton Woods System (or the 'New World Order')
The 1970s to the present
Isolationism
International conflicts
Sanctions
Case study: Local solutions to global problems
Environmentalism
Summary of key points
Case study: Weetabix – local solutions to global problems
Assignments
Further reading
PART Two CONTEXTS
5 The political environment (P)
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Political systems
Government in democratic states
Mini case: Brought to book
The three branches or functions of government
Mini case: The power of the purse
Checks and balances in democracies
A model of the policy process
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Appendix 5.1: A democratic political system in action: UK national government
The executive branch of government
The judicial branch of government
Appendix 5.2: Subnational government: UK local authorities
Appendix 5.3: Other levels of government
Case study: The business of lobbying
Case study: Political campaign funding
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
6 The macroeconomic environment (E)
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Economic systems
Economies in transition
Politico-economic synthesis
The macroeconomy
Government and the macroeconomy: objectives
Mini case: Digging in for the long term
Government and the macroeconomy: policies
The role of financial institutions
Mini case: A new kid on the block: the rise of the credit rating agency
International economic institutions and organisations
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Austerity
Case study: Quantitative easing (QE)
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
7 The demographic, social and cultural context of business (S)
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The demographic environment of business
The social context
Mini case: A new class structure?
Lifestyles
The cultural environment
Mini case: National cultures
Application: market segmentation
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: An invitation to 'tweet'
Case study: Supply and demands - a changing workforce
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
8 The resource context: people, technology and natural resources (T)
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
People
Mini case: Zero-hours contracts
Technology
Technological change
Mini case: The robots are coming
Natural resources
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Agricultural work and Brexit
Case study: Fracking
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
9 The legal environment (L) Martin Morgan-Taylor
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Classification of law
Public and private law
Mini case: Verity and Spindler v Lloyds Bank (1995)
The legal system: the courts
Mini case: Jean-Marc Bosman - a case of foul play?
Business organisations and the law
Contract law: the essentials
Agency
Law and the consumer
Codes of practice
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: The sale of goods on the Internet
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
10 The ethical and ecological environment (E)
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Ethics and business
Mini case: Illegal or unethical?
Corporate social responsibility
The 'environment' as a business issue: the emergence of corporate environmentalism
Drivers of 'green' business
Why and how firms become more environmentally responsible
Mini case: Going round in circles: Desso Carpets
Another perspective: the 'outside-in' view
Summary of key points
Case study: Doing well by doing good
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
PART Three FIRMS
11 Legal structures
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Private sector organisations in the UK
Mini case: Companies under pressure
Social enterprises
Public sector business organisations in the UK
Legal structure: some implications
Franchising, licensing and joint ventures
Mini case: Cross-national joint ventures
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Uber
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
12 Size structure of firms
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The size structure of UK industry
Organisational growth
Methods of growth
Mini case: The story of a failed merger
Finance for growth
Small firms
Mini case: 'Olderpreneurs' and small firms
Multinationals
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: The Scottish National Investment Bank
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
13 Industrial structure
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The structure of industry
Mini case: The end of manufacturing?
Mini case: The life cycle model
Deindustrialisation
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Appendix 13.1: The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), 2007
Case study: The rise of the public service companies
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
14 Government and business
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Government and business: an overview
Selected urban policy instruments
Developments in urban policy: 1997-2010
Urban and industrial policy developments in the UK since 2010
Local government and business in the UK
Business as an influence on government
Mini case: A taxing issue
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Public sector procurement - the Royal Navy
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
PART Four MARKETS
15 The market system
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The market mechanism
Demand
Supply
Shifts in demand and supply
Mini case: The effect of a factory fire on the market for microchips
Price controls
Mini case: The price of toilet rolls in Venezuela
Elasticity of demand
Cross-price elasticity of demand
Elasticity of supply
The importance of the market to business
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: The housing market in the UK
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
16 Market structure
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Market structures - in theory and practice
Porter's five-forces model
Mini case: Open Skies and contestability
Mini case: Blizzard, Activision and Microsoft
Measuring the degree of actual competition in the market
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: A Porter's five-forces analysis of the cigarette industry in the UK
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
17 International markets and trade
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
International trade - why it takes place
Restrictions to international trade
Mini case: The cotton dispute
The establishment and growth of the European Union
'Brexit' and Euroscepticism
The balance of payments
The history of the balance of payments in the UK
Mini case: The current account of the balance of payments
Exchange rates
Exchange rates and business
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Post-Brexit trade
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
18 Pandemics and Covid-19
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Pandemics
Pandemics in history
Global spread
Prevention
Case study: Covid-19
Mini case: FFP2/N95 respirators and surgical masks
Mini case: Peloton bikes
UK government support measures
The future
Returning to normal
Synopsis
Assignments
Further reading
19 Governments and markets
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
Privatisation policy in the UK
Mini case: Government to the rescue
Competition policy
Mini case: Accusations of price fixing
Government and the labour market
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Who leads who?
Case study: 'What a fine mess you've got me into'
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
PART Five CONCLUSION
20 Strategy and the changing environment David Orton
Learning outcomes and key terms
Introduction
The need to monitor environmental change
Analysing the business environment: broad approaches
Mini case: Multinational inward investment: a PESTLE analysis
Techniques
Limitations to environmental analysis
Sources of information
Synopsis
Summary of key points
Case study: Scenario planning at Shell
Review and discussion questions
Assignments
Further reading
Glossary
Index
Back Cover