ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT

Entrepreneurship environment refers to the various facets within which enterprises- big, medium and small and others have to operate. The environment therefore, influences the enterprise. By and large, an environment created by political, social, economic, national, legal forces etc influences entrepreneurship.

INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (Micro Environment)

A) PRODUCT:

The business has to produce a product that people want to buy. They have to decide which ‘market segment’ they are aiming at – age, income, geographical location etc. They then have to differentiate their product so that it is slightly different from what is on offer at present so that people can be persuaded to ‘give them a try’. In other words product is a bundle of satisfaction that a costumer buys. It represent solution to a customer’s problem .It is in this context that marketing definition of a product is more than just what the manufacturer understand it.

B) PRICE:

To a manufacturer, price represent quantity of money received by the firm or seller .To customer, it represent sacrifice and hence his perception of the value of product. The price must be high enough to cover costs and make a profit but low enough to attract customers. There are a number of possible pricing strategies.

The most commonly used are:

• PENETRATION PRICING – charging a low price, possibly not quite covering costs, to gain a position in the market. This is quite popular with new businesses trying to get a ‘toehold’.
• CREAMING – the opposite to penetration pricing, this involves charging a deliberately high price to persuade people that the product is of high quality. Luxury car makers often use this strategy
• COST PLUS PRICING – this is the most common form of pricing. Costs are totaled and a margin is added on for profit to make the total price.

C) PLACE:

The business must have a location that it can afford, and that is convenient and suitable for customers and any supplier.

D) PROMOTION:

Promotion means moving from one end to another. Promotion means all those tools that a marketer uses to take his product from the factory to the customer and hence involves advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations publicity and merchandising. Customers have to be made aware of the product. The two main considerations are target market and cost. A new business will not be able to afford to advertise on national television, for instance and would not wish to because its market will be local to start with. Leaflets, billboards, advertisements in local newspapers, Yellow Pages and ‘word of mouth’ would be more appropriate.

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT (Macro Environment)

External Environment:

Also known as Macro Environment, are the “uncontrollable factors” which a company must monitor and respond to. They consist of economic, political, technological, social-cultural and legal.

Economic Environment:

It consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Markets require purchasing power as well as people. Economic conditions, economic policies and economic systems are the important external factors that constitute the economic environment of a business. For example, the economic conditions of a country, the nature of the economy, the stage of development of the economy, economic resources, the level of income, the distribution of income and assets etc. are among very important determinants of business strategies.

Technological Environment:

Technology is the most dramatic force shaping people’s lives. Factors such as technological development, stages of development, change and rate of change in technology and research and development affect marketing strategies. Also the cost of technology acquisition, impact of technology on human beings and the environmental effects of technology affect marketing decisions.

Political environment:

Political environment is composed of laws, government agencies and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a society. The main political trends are:

(a)    Substantial amount of legislation regulating business.

(b)   Growth of public interest groups and

(c)    Changing government agency enforcement.

Socio-cultural environment:

The basic beliefs, values and norms shape the society and its people. Even when people of different cultures use the same basic product, the mode of consumption, condition of use, purpose of use or the perception of the product attributes may vary so much so that the product attributes, method of promoting the product may have to be varied to suit the characteristics of different markets. Even the value and beliefs associated with colour vary significantly between different cultures.

Legal environment:

Government all over the world are an important aspects of their economy and even in the so called free economy, viz.US, government intervention in industry is a reality. The extent of intervention varies .while in US this is relatively low; in developing countries this is quite high. India ,for example ,has had a history of a controlled economy with the government deciding the rules of the game ,be it the extent of foreign private investment ,or goods to be exported or imported or even whether a unit can be allowed to produce a product Regulation in advertising ,like ban on advertising a specific product like cigarettes, pan masala, liquor and distribution of goods as in the case of kerosene and earlier in case of food product too, is the reality of Indian scenario.