Purpose
To assess your ability to analyze the environment of an industry from the internal, political, economic, societal, and technological
perspectives.
Overview
There are five major environments associated with any organization or industry – an internal environment and four external
environments. The external environment analysis is sometimes referred to as a PEST analysis (political-economical-social-technological
analysis).
In this assignment, you will need to research the industry you chose in order to identify the trends, patterns, and consistencies in
the business environments for that industry.
• Trends – A series of data points that show either an upward or downward movement or a gradual movement in one direction.
• Patterns – Finding items that are recurring over and over in a cyclic fashion or if something regularly happens and a resulting
reaction always occurs.
• Consistencies – Things (e.g., events or activities) that remain constant and really do not appear to change over time within
the industries.
Action Items
1. View the following videos on various business environments, including both internal and external environments:
Internalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gb0HppHz_c&feature=youtu.be
Politicalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kzjs-64L0M&feature=youtu.be
Economichttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxGwqbQQ_Oc&feature=youtu.be
Socialhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJM5uJrSFnU&feature=youtu.be
Technologicalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOhJrWuenfI&feature=youtu.be
2. Pick two of the environments you would like to further research for this assignment.
3. Use the industry you selected in Week 1 of this course.
4. Conduct research to identify political trends, patterns, and consistencies in the two business environments for the industry
you chose to research national and global levels.
5. Write a 1-2 page business brief. Follow the Business Brief Guidelines. Use section headers appropriately. Include at least two
references from the MBA Journal List. Your brief should include the following:
Harvard Business Review
MIT Sloan Management Review
Strategy + Business
Ivey Business Journal
Academy of Management Learning & Education
Academy of Management Journal
Performance Improvement
Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance
Thunderbird International Business Review
McKinsey Quarterly
Group Decision and Negotiation
Strategic Management Journal
International Journal of HR management
Journal of Business
American Demographics
Consumers Research magazine
Marketing Research
Marketing Science
Journal of Consumer Research
Sales and Marketing Management
International Business
International Journal of Business
International Journal of Business & Society
International Journal of Business Studies
Project Management Journal
a. Briefly orient the reader to the industry that you have selected.
b. Describe the key trends, patterns, and consistencies in both of the environments you researched.
c. Identify important synergies or convergences among the trends, if any exists.
d. Select what you believe is the most critical trend, pattern, or consistency related to your industry’s future success from
among all the trends, patterns, and consistencies you have identified. Explain why you think this is the most critical to the industry.
e. Analyze what you believe will be the major impacts of this most critical trend, pattern, or consistency on the industry over
the next five years.
Project 6: Brief Rubric
Total 70 points
Criteria Proficient
Develops an opening paragraph that introduces the case. Develops an opening paragraph that introduces the case and demonstrates solid
ability to accomplish the assignment.
Describes the key trends, patterns, and consistencies in both of the environments researched. Describes the key trends, patterns, and
consistencies in both of the environments researched and demonstrates solid ability to accomplish the assignment.
Identifies important synergies or convergences among the trends, if any exist. Identifies important synergies or convergences among
the trends and demonstrates solid ability to accomplish the assignment.
Select the most critical trend, pattern or consistency related to the selected industry’s future success and explain why. Selects
and explains the most critical trend, pattern or consistency related to the selected industry’s future success and demonstrates solid
ability to accomplish the assignment.
Analyze the major impacts of the most critical trend, pattern, or consistency on the selected industry over the next five years.
Analyzes the major impacts of the most critical trend, pattern, or consistency and demonstrates solid ability to accomplish the
assignment.
Integrates established business environment principles into the discussion.
Consistently does a good job of integrating established business environment principles into the discussion.
Synthesizes relevant information and materials to provide evidence of critical thought. Consistently and effectively synthesizes
information, which provides strong support to main ideas.
Develops ideas with clarity and logic.
Develops ideas with clarity and logic. Ideas flow smoothly from one to another and are clearly linked to each other.
Uses supporting documentation that has been properly referenced and cited.
Consistently uses supporting documentation that is properly referenced and cited.
Considered holistically, demonstrates the ability to write at the graduate level.
Considered holistically, the student demonstrates a proficient ability to write at the graduate level.