Title: Examples of External Issues - Whittington & Associates
Headings: Examples of External Issues
Examples of External Issues
PESTEL Model

Content: Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, and the inflation rate. These factors greatly affect how businesses operate and make decisions. Social factors include cultural aspects, health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes, and emphasis on safety. High trends in social factors affect the demand for a company’s products and how that company operates. Technological factors include technological aspects like research and development, automation, technology incentives, and the rate of technological change. These can determine barriers to entry and minimum efficient production level, as well as, influence outsourcing decisions. Technological shifts affect costs, quality, and innovation. Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change, which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance. Furthermore, growing awareness of environmental impacts affects how companies operate and the products they offer, both creating new markets and diminishing or destroying existing ones. Legal factors include discrimination law, consumer law, antitrust law, employment law, and health and safety law.