Chapter 4 The External Environment
Industry
A group of companies that provide similar products and services
eco-efficiency
Company actions that produce more useful goods and services while continuously reducing resource consumption and pollution
Remote Environment
Economic, Social, political, technological, and ecological factors that originate beyond and usually irrespective of, any single Firm's operating situation.
Operating Environment
Factors in the immediate competitive situation that affect a firm's success in acquiring needed resources
Barriers to Entry
The conditions that a firm must satisfy to enter an industry
Product Differentation
The extent to which customers perceive difference among products and services
External Environment
The factors beyond the control of the firm that influence its choice of direction and action, organizational structure, and internal processes
Industry Environment
The general conditions for competition that influence all businesses that provide similar products and services
Technological Forecasting
The quasi-science of anticipating environmental and competitive changes and estimating their importance to an organization's operations
Ecology
The relationship among human beings and other living things and the air, soil, and water that supports them
Economies of Scale
The savings that companies achieve because of increased volume
Pollution
Threats to life supporting ecology caused principally by human activities in an industrial society
