Chapter 3: Evaluating the External Environment
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Relationship Between an Organization and its Environment
3.3 Evaluating the General Environment
3.4 Evaluating the Industry
3.5 Mapping Strategic Groups
3.6 Conclusion
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to understand and articulate answers to the following questions:
- What is the macro environment and why is it important to organizations?
- How is the PESTEL framework used to evaluate the external environment?
- How is the Porter’s Five Forces tool used to perform a competitive analysis of an industry?
- What are strategic groups and how are they useful to evaluating the competitive environment?
