Environmental scanning is one of the essential component of the global environmental analysis.
Environmental monitoring, environmental forecasting and environmental assessment complete the
global environmental analysis.
The global environment refers to the macro environment which comprises industries, markets,
companies, clients and competitors.
Consequently, there exist corresponding analyses on the micro-level.
Suppliers, customers and competitors representing the micro environment of a company are analyzed
within the industry analysis.
Environmental scanning can be defined as ‘the study and interpretation of the political,
economic, social and technological events and trends which influence a business, an
industry or even a total market’.
The factors which need to be considered for environmental scanning are events, trends,
issues and expectations of the different interest groups.
Issues are often forerunners of trend breaks.
A trend break could be a value shift in society, a technological innovation that might be permanent
or a paradigm change.
Issues are less deep-seated and can be 'a temporary short-lived reaction to a social
phenomenon'.
A trend can be defined as an ‘environmental phenomenon that has adopted a structural character’.
Macro environment There are a number of common approaches how
the external factors, which are mentioned in the definition of Kroon and which describe
the macro environment, can be identified and examined.
These factors indirectly affect the organization but cannot be controlled by it.
One approach could be the PEST analysis.
PEST stands for political, economic, social and technological.
Two more factors, the environmental and legal factor, are defined within the PESTEL analysis.
The segmentation of the macro environment according to the six presented factors of
the PESTEL analysis is the starting point of the global environmental analysis.
PESTEL analysis The six environmental factors of the PESTEL
analysis are the following: Political factors
Taxation Policy Trade regulations
Governmental stability Unemployment Policy, etc.
Economical factors Inflation rate
Growth in spending power Rate of people in a pensionable age
Recession or Boom Customer liquidations
Socio-cultural Values, beliefs
language religion
education literacy
time orientation Technological factors
Internet E-commerce
Social Media Electronic Media
Research and Development Rate of technological change
Environmental factors Competitive advantage
Waste disposal Energy consumption
Pollution monitoring, etc.
Legal factors employment law
Health and safety Product safety
Advertising regulations Product labeling
labor laws etc.
Mesoenvironment The meso-level is settled between the macro-
and the micro-level.
This field deals with the design of the specific environment of the enterprises.
It is of decisive importance that the layout of the physical infrastructure and of the
sector policies, especially of the education, research and technology policy, are oriented
towards competitiveness.
In addition the design of the trade policy and systems of rules, which contributes to
the development of national advantages of competition, is relevant.
Like on the micro-level, on the meso-level new patterns of organisation and steering
must be developed.
The state shall give impulses and mediate between enterprises, associations, science
and intermediate institutions.
"The design of locations becomes like that a continuous process on the basis of the efforts
of enterprises, science and state as well as of the determined cooperation of private
and public agents" See also
Strategic early warning system Notes