Environment and Business

8 Key excerpts on "Environment and Business"

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  eBook - ePub

  Environment and Business

  • Alasdair Blair, David Hitchcock(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1: Environment and Business: the nature of the relationships

  • The basic elements—business, environment and environmentalism

  • Impact of business on the environment

  • The environment influencing business

  • Business cultures and ethics

  • The globalization of business

  • Environmental and political standpoints

  Simple answers rarely suffice for complex problems; environmental and natural resources problems are not an exception. (Tom Tietenberg, 2000)

  The environment is in the process of becoming a major new competitive area for business. Understanding the impact of the relevant issues and responding to the resulting opportunities and threats will become an important source of competitive advantage. (Elkington and Burke, 1987)

  One of the main aims of this first chapter is to familiarize the reader with the relationships which are to be explored in this book. The relationships in themselves are relatively straightforward. First, business activities have an impact on the environment. This occurs through pollution, the modification of ecosystems, introducing exotic species and chemical compounds, genetic engineering and irreversible physical changes—the sorts of impacts widely reported in the popular press and television. The ways in which land has been used, particularly for agriculture and forestry, are a reflection of the way in which the commercial pressures of business have changed the physical landscape. Business affects the environment in a variety of ways both deliberate and accidental. Most of the effects are usually seen as detrimental, although increasingly we see some business activity improving the environment. For example, a number of museums and country houses have been opened to the public where the restoration of former days of glory have halted decades of decline and reinstated previous, albeit not entirely natural, surroundings. However, many firms who claim to be improving the environment are in reality only mitigating against the most injurious impacts of what is occurring. Hence the practice of planting trees and landscaping around industrial plants is not improving the environment but merely reducing the detrimental effects of building the plant in the first place.

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  Understanding Business Environments

  • Michael Lucas(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Introduction: The Concept of the Business Environment

  The aim of this book is to provide a framework for understanding what business decision-makers, academics and educationalists have come to call the ‘environment’. Everyday use of this word is loaded with images like the idyllic countryside, ‘green’ product labelling, ‘eco-warriors’ and many others linked to the ongoing debate about the treatment of our ‘natural’ environment. This book is not about that debate because in terms of the study of business ‘environment’ is a more all-embracing term. In a sense anything external to a business in the ‘outside’ world – may be thought of as part of the environment. As a subject of study, business environment is a notoriously ill-defined and messy amalgam of topics and issues which normally forms part of the introductory element of a business studies course. It is essentially rooted in the study of the academic disciplines often referred to as the social sciences namely economics, sociology, politics and law – without allowing students to delve into them in detail. More often than not it ends up as either an unconnected collection of theories from each of these disciplines or a current (or not so current!) affairs scrapbook. It is intended to provide a backdrop against which the ‘real’ subjects of business organisations and activities are taught. However, a thorough grounding in how to analyse the environment could offer great insights into other more developed areas of business studies, most notably decision-making, strategy and business ethics. This collection is my attempt to provide that grounding.

  Very few of the writers whose work I have included here would consider themselves to have been writing for business. The bulk of them are dispassionate ‘observers’ – journalists, academics and educationalists – of their ‘environments’ with no particular interest in peddling management solutions or pet theories of management. Their interest stems from their role as a ‘stakeholder’ in an environment which they observe. What is common to them all is that they are writing about

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  eBusiness

  • Paul Beynon-Davies(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  193 7 e Business environment Learning outcomes Principles Understand the relationship between the organisation as a system and the environment of the organisation. The organisation as a value-creating system interacts with actors within the wider environment. It is useful to consider four major aspects of this environment: economic, social, political and physical. Describe the nature of the economic environment of the organisation. The primary environment of a commercial organisation is the economy. Economies are systems for coordinating the production and distribution of goods/products and services. Commerce is the term normally used for that process which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. Describe the nature of the social environment of the organisation. There is clear evidence that modern Western societies are now information societies. The definition of the information society relies on a critical mass of the populace using what we have called electronic delivery as their preferred method of accessing the services and products of public and private sector organisations. A number of pre-conditions exist to the successful uptake of electronic delivery: awareness, interest, access, skills, use and impact. Understand the political environment of the organisation. Traditional conceptions of law are being challenged by electronic commerce, such as the use and enforcement of contracts and intellectual property rights. Describe the nature of the physical environment of the organisation. Any activity has an impact upon the physical environment. An increasing focus has been given to the proper management of ICT to mitigate effects upon the physical environment and to reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint.

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  Financial Services Management

  A Qualitative Approach

  • Stewart Falconer(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  10 Business and the external environment Social responsibility and business ethics DOI: 10.4324/9780203515532-10

  Introduction

  Now that we have considered the significance and influence of the contextual environment on business management, I want to turn my attention to the more immediate or operational environment and, here, I am examining the relationship between business and those sectors of society with which business and its activities have a much more direct interaction. When thinking about the entities that might be included in the operational environment for organizations within financial services, we could have quite a number of participants. For example:

  Customers

  Clearly, customers are one of the most important elements of the environment, if not the most important. If you are to meet their needs effectively and encourage them to buy and buy more from you, the organization must be aware of:

  • how customers evaluate the organization's products and services against those of its competitors;
  • what they are looking for in the market and to what extent the organization is providing it effectively;
  • how their tastes are changing;
  • what customers are buying in the market, from whom and why.

  As I said in the previous chapter, you can influence your customers’ behaviour by providing the products they are looking for but, at the same time, they can be very influential in the success or failure of your marketing strategy simply in terms of whether or not they buy your products. In addition, what they tell their friends about the business and its products can be similarly influential.

  Shareholders

  The shareholders in a business have a direct interest in the strategy that the organization pursues, as the success or otherwise of that strategy has a direct impact on the growth in and returns on their investment. On the other hand, their influence on that strategy depends on their level of investment interest in the business. In other words, while every shareholder has the opportunity to comment on company performance, the extent of their influence is directly related to the size of their shareholding. Although it is a little out of date, a survey of the structure of shareholding in selected countries

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  The Pursuit of Sustainability

  • David L. Rainey, Robert J. Araujo(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Information Age Publishing

    (Publisher)

  The natural environment includes all physical, chemical, and biological entities that exist and interact in the reality and functions of planet Earth. It provides natural resources for businesses and the means and mechanisms to mitigate wastes and negative effects and impacts. The natural en- vironment encompasses numerous ecosystems. An ecosystem is the interconnected system of living organisms and their biological, physical, and chemical support struc- tures of the environment. It links the material and energy flows. Within the hierarchy of sustainability, strategic leaders have a duty to understand, protect, conserve, and use wisely the natural environment and the physical, biological, and chemical resources therein and to ensure that ecological considerations and forces are stable and sustain- able over time. These elements are covered in more detail in Chapter 4. The Basic Framework of the Levels of Sustainability Conceptual layout of the levels As discussed in Chapter 1, sustainability is a comprehensive management construct with complex requirements and structures. The underlying dimensions that underpin businesses and their enduring success are leadership, space, the scope of the business linkages, connections, exchanges, interactions, relationships, activities, and the time horizon of strategic direction and decision making. Figure 2.2 presents a graphical representation of the key underpinnings, the levels of sustainability, and the perspec- tives of how progressing from a lower level to higher levels involves dramatic expansion in strategic leadership, the scope of the business enterprise, and time considerations. The graphic details more precise representation of the complexities involved in the POS than in Figure 1.1; each subsequent level is a quantum increase from the previ- ous one. As companies move from level to level, the scope of the business enterprise expands as well as the requirements and expectations. Expanding the scope of key

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  Environmental Politics and Policy

  • John McCormick(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  24 Environmental Politics and Policy ideally – value-free. More than most other areas of policy, the definition and resolution of environmental problems depends on scientific understanding, but we will see that scientists and policymakers have an uncomfortable relationship stemming from different expectations, timetables, and values. ▪ Economics approaches environmental questions with market forces in mind, and is concerned with the environmental impact of production and consumption, and with the relative impact of regulation and market-driven alternatives. Placing a value on a commodity or a course of action, however, is not always as easy as it might seem. ▪ Business can see environmental regulation either as a costly nuisance or as an opportunity. In recent decades there has been a move towards the latter, with the rise of corporate social responsibility and consumer-based approaches to environmental management. But the relationship between government and business has not always been an easy one. ▪ Philosophy sees environmental issues as ethical issues, and deals with the values and worldviews behind environmental problems and the policy responses to those problems. It tries to answer questions about whether humans are part of nature of separate from it, and about how far nature as shaped by humans should be treated differently from nature unaffected by humans. ▪ Security is a factor because environmental issues can pose strategic challenges, revolving either around disputes over access to scarce resources, or around problems created by man-made environmental change, such as global warming. In this regard, environment and security have a close relationship. This chapter looks in turn at each of these perspectives, showing how they influence the political debates about the environment, as well as giving us greater insight into the way in which policy is shaped.

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  Management

  • Ricky Griffin(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  To do so, therefore, the manager must first thoroughly understand the nature of the organization’s environments. 3 The external environment is everything outside an organization’s boundaries that might affect it. As shown in Figure 3.1, there are actually two separate external environments: the general environment and the task environment. An organization’s internal environment consists of conditions and forces within the organization. Of course, not all parts of these environments are equally important for all organizations. A small two-person partnership does not have a board of directors, for example, whereas a large public corporation is required by law to have one. A private university with a large external environment Everything outside an organization’s boundaries that might affect it internal environment The conditions and forces within an organization Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 62 endowment (like Yale) may be less concerned about general economic conditions than might a state university (like the University of Mississippi), which relies on state funding from tax revenues. Still, organizations need to fully understand which environmental forces are impor- tant and how the importance of others might increase. 3-2 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT As just noted, an organization’s external environment consists of two parts. The general environment of an organization is the set of broad dimensions and forces in its surroundings that create its overall context.

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  Hospitality Marketing Management

  • David C. Bojanic, Robert D. Reid(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  In other words, there is an emphasis on people and the planet, as well as profits. The hospitality and tourism industry is heavily affected by this initiative because it relies, to a large extent, on travel between destinations. Although visitors are a good positive source of economic impact on a destination, there are also negative impacts on the environment and the local community. Therefore, it is necessary for destinations to manage the positive and negative impacts related to their economies, environments, and society. This chapter will start with a discussion of the external environment that affects hospitality and tourism firms, and then address the issue of sustainability. 2.2 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT When marketing managers consider changes in marketing strategy or tactics, they often examine the changes in five major components of the external environment: economic, social, competitive, political and legal, and technological. Firms cannot directly influence their external environment, but they can monitor changes and be somewhat proactive. It is critical for firms to engage in some level of environmental scanning, so they can take advantage of marketing opportunities while anticipating any threats to their business. Environmental scanning can be a formal mechanism within a firm, or merely the result of salespeople and managers consciously monitoring changes in the environment. The larger the firm, the more likely it will have a structured approach to scanning the environment and documenting trends. The following section contains brief descriptions of each of the exter- nal environments. 2.2.1 The Economic Environment The goal of all marketing activity is to create and satisfy customers. Consumers’ purchasing power, or ability to purchase products and services, is directly related to the economic health of the city, state, and country.

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