External environment , business strategy Coursework

External environment , business strategy - Coursework Example Under the competitive environment, also referred to as the task or industry environment, the strategist takes into consideration the decisions, actions and moves initiated by rival firms in the same industry. The PESTEL analysis and five forces model would delineate the opportunities that an organization can tap. At the same time, various threats that the organization should be vary of would also be uncovered with the help of this analysis. These threats and opportunities are kept in mind and correlated with internal strengths and weaknesses while deciding various strategic issues including which businesses should the company invest money in. The objectives are also set keeping in mind the opportunities available to the organization. Under the political factors, the strategist has to take into consideration the political stability, ideology of the ruling government as well as its attitude towards various businesses. The economic factors include interest rates, income levels, unemployment rates, and rate of inflation prevailing in the country. In general, recessionary conditions can have an adverse impact on companies. Rising affluence of people may prove to be a boon to companies especially to those operating in the entertainment and leisure sector. The social factors include the opinions, beliefs, values and attitudes of the people. Number of women in the workforce, concern for health and fitness are also socio-cultural aspects, the increase in which can provide a boost to certain industries. Technological aspects too impact businesses. A company operating in the cell phone or computer manufacturing industry may confront a short product life cycle. In order to sustain in such an environment such company will have to constantly invest in research and development and manufacture state-of-the-art technologically advanced products. The issue of global warming has necessitated that all companies adopt ‘green’ measures. This may

Quantitve and qualitative method of research, sociology Essay

Quantitve and qualitative method of research, sociology - Essay Example Research methodology is the procedural framework within which the research is conducted. The methodology would depend upon the topic to be researched and the specific research questions are the primary drivers. Positivism (quantitative with hypothesis testing) and interpretivism (qualitative with hypothesis generalizations) are the different types of research philosophies, each has its own purposes and advantages. Research philosophy highlights two different schools of thought on the how to conduct research. Arguments should be evaluated in different ways because primarily arguments have different roles and purposes and people assess according to the purpose in their mind. At times arguments provide useful information depending on one’s knowledge of how the world works. In a different setting, one can take an abstract approach and ask what follows from a given set of information and then decide on the outcome. Arguments can be evaluated in two qualitatively different ways – in terms of their deductive correctness or in terms of inductive strength (Rips, 2001). Quantitative methodology is a positivist approach in sociology research. Positivism is characterized by operational definitions, objectivity, replicability and causality (Bryman, 1984). Through questionnaire items the concepts can be operationalized; objectivity can be obtained by maintaining distance between the observer and the observed. By applying the same research instrument in another context replication can be maintained and causality is handled through path analysis and related regression techniques. Quantitative investigations look for â€Å"distinguishing characteristics, elemental properties and empirical boundaries’ and tend to measure â€Å"how much† or â€Å"how often† (Nau, 1995 cited by Amaratunga et al.,). Quantitative research designs determine the truth value of propositions and allow flexibility in the