BUS 478 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Complementary Good, Fixed Cost, Competitive Intelligence

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Business Administration
• Course: BUS 478
• Professor: Da Silva Rui Jorge Basto

Document Summary

Chapter 2 readings: 2-1 the general, industry, and competitor environments (page 38) The general environment is composed of dimensions in the broader society that influence an industry and the firms within it. We group these dimensions into seven environmental segments: demographic, economic, political/legal, sociocultural, technological, global, and physical. In total, the interactions among these five factors determine and industry"s profitability potential; in turn, the industry"s profitability potential influences the choices each firm makes about its competitive actions and responses. How companies gather and interpret information about their competitors is called competitor analysis. External environmental analysis has four parts: scanning, monitoring, forecasting, and assessing. An opportunity is a condition in the general environment that, if exploited effectively, helps a company reach strategic competiveness. A threat is a condition in the general environment that may hinder a company"s efforts to achieve strategic competitiveness. Scanning entails the study of all segments in the general environment.