Academic Writing and Research Analysis

This assignment requires students to critically analyze a set of academic articles from diverse fields. Students will evaluate the writing quality, adherence to citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA), and the overall research methods employed in each article. The goal is to develop an understanding of effective academic writing conventions and the complexities of scholarly research.

BUSINESS AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Executive Summary
Business environment refers to external as well as internal factor. These factors are
intended to create significant impact over wider business environment. An organisation
is required to bring changes in their management style and organisational structure in
order to gain market shares. With the growth of internet, online retail organizations are
gaining prominence. There has been an increase competition in the online business and
it is quite difficult or gaining a competitive edge. This study is going to deal with the
effect of internal as well as external environment over this company. An analysis will be
made for understand ways in which these factors are interrelated to each other.
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Table of contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
LO1: Different types of organisation...............................................................................4
P1 Purposes and types of organisation............................................................................4
P2 Explaining scope and size of private, public and voluntary organisations................6
LO2: Demonstrating interrelationship between various functions..................................7
P3 Linking organizational functions with objectives.........................................................7
LO3: using examples for demonstrating negative and positive influence of macro
environment..................................................................................................................... 9
P4 Pros and cons of macro environment over an organisation........................................9
LO4: Internal and external analysis..............................................................................11
P5 External and internal analysis of organisation..........................................................11
P6 Interrelation between external and internal environment........................................12
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 13
Reference List................................................................................................................ 15
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Introduction
Business environment refers to the internal as well as external factors that influence
company’s stakeholders. An organization gets influenced by their customers, suppliers,
employee and also competitors. A business organisation might differ in size and scope
and also in terms of legal structures. There are different types of organisation that
include private, public and voluntary. Each organisation has to perform certain purposes
and they are required to set a goal in order to meet their organisational objectives. This
study is going to discuss about types of organisations and their structural differences.
An analysis is to be attempted regarding internal as well as external environmental
factors. Both these factors put huge impact over an organisation. The interrelation
between micro environmental factors over wider business environment is also to be
analysed in this study. This study is going to focus on Amazon and try to identify their
organisational structure and conduct an macro as well as micro environmental analysis.
Amazon is one of the largest online retail companies that is gaining prominence in the
digital world.
Figure 1: Company Logo
(Source: amazon.co.uk.2017)
LO1: Different types of organisation
P1 Purposes and types of organisation
Organisations can be defined as a venture that tries to work with a group of workers in
order to meet certain objectives. It is a framework that operates for managing various
types of tasks. Organisations can be classified into three broad sections such as public,
private and voluntary organisation. Different types of organisation works with a group of
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employees for achieving good performance. Before assigning tasks employee, an
organisation is required to set certain objectives and try to proceed towards achieving
those objectives (Barac et al.2016, p.20).
Purposes of Public sector
Public sector organisation can be defined as firms that are operated by government
bodies. This type of organisation obtains revenues from government generated funds.
The main objective of public sector organisations is to give maximum value to public.
The emphasis is put on managing of the public domain. Public sector organisation in UK
are further divided into categories such as management and political. It has been found
that the public sectors of UK are inclined with small business firms (Brown et al. 2014,
p.482). These firms had to provide services even at the time of economic crisis. This
sector purchases goods and services in two ways namely through tenders and the other
through purchasing products directly. The public sector organisations are required to
receive certificates for trading. This helps them to protect them for any sort of legal
actions.
Private sector organisation
The private sectors can be defined as organisations that run with a motive of earning
maximum profit. It is owned either by a single person or more than one person. These
types of organisations are controlled and funded by their owners. Private sector can be
classified into partnership, sole proprietors and large multinational. According to Ellis
van Rooyen(2014, p.20), private organisations is growing business in the United
Kingdom. A large part of revenue is contributed by this sector in compare to public
sector. It can be said that this sector need to formulate strategies for staying ahead of
their competitors. The owners at private business are not able to sell their shares to
general public. The shareholders have a limited liability for that organisation's debt.
Voluntary sector
Voluntary sector tries to put emphasis over enriching a society. This sector can also be
further divided into non-governmental organisation and non-profitable organisation. The
purpose of non-profitable organisation is to provide social services to people. On the
other hand, non-governmental organisation is generally operated by legal person and a
share of the profit has to be given to the government for conducting development
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process. This type of organisation had to give part of their profit to government
otherwise it may result in legal actions.
P2 Explaining scope and size of private, public and voluntary organisations
Scope of a business can be referred as opportunities that are available to a business for
enhancing their profit margins. Public , private and voluntary sector have differing scope
available to them (Kouatli, 2016, p.46).
Scope of Different organisations
In UK private sector has an enriching scope. This is because most part of the income in
UK is generated by this sector. Services are to be updated as per demands if the
customers. As per the opinion of Lieberman et al.(2016, p.81), a business can flourish
with an effective supply chain management scheme.
Private organisation:
It has been found that this sector is able to introduce new strategies for managing their
employees. Increasing business opportunities have resulted in employment generation
in the private sector in compare to public sector. On the contrary public sector in UK are
unable to improve their management process for enhancing business.
Voluntary organisation:
Voluntary sector have a scope to improve the social conditions of the people. They are
trying to enrich their organization by developing goals that aims at increasing social
services. Business scope can be increased by promoting an organization through a
number of promotional channels like print media, mass media and social media.
Suppliers are to be trained properly for achieving maximum procurement.
Public organisation
The Public organisation is not able to apply innovative ideas for increasing their
business scope (Lynch, 2016, p.56). The public sector has failed to increase their
business scope due to lack of innovation.
Size of business
A business organisations size may vary in accordance to their structure and
management quality. A number of factors are associated with the size of a business that
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includes capital availability, managerial quality, entrepreneurial skills and nature of
business.
Managerial capability: A firm especially private is solely dependent upon manger’s
skill. A manager is regarded as one of the pillar upon which a private organisation
stands. Capable managers are able to assign tasks to their employees as per their
capabilities. They are also able to manage crisis situation in a effective way. On the
other hand in public sector organisation, managers do not play such vital role as in case
of private sectors. Here, government decision plays an important role in managing
employees. Voluntary sector do not need a manager to conduct their works.
Nature of business: Nature of a business could also put impact over a firm by
determining type of business. Business organisation can be divided into: small business
and large scale business (Patrignani and Whitehouse, 2015, p.776). The nature of
private sector organisation is to earn profit and in order to ensure profitability of these
firms by encouraging employees. Private sectors are required to increase efficiency
levels of their employees by employing new management techniques.
Entrepreneurial skill: Private firms are able to make use of skills of the entrepreneurial
skills so as to manage a firm. It can be said that employees are able to get benefit for
their entrepreneurs.
LO2: Demonstrating interrelationship between various functions
P3 Linking organizational functions with objectives
The organisational function refers to task that are completed by different departments.
Organizational functions include marketing, financing, producing and administering.
These functions are to be conducted in an adequate manner for achieving
organisational goals. Each function are to be linked to objectives in order to complete a
task in an effective manner. Communication is to be made an important part for
achieving integration between functions and objectives. The production department is
required to produce goods and services by following certain objectives of an
organisation. For example: the organisation mission of Amazon is to deliver quality
products to their customers and in order to achieve this objective they are trying to focus
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in their production procedures. In order to establish them as the leading online retailer in
the world, Amazon is trying to take control over their marketing process.
Figure 2: Organisational chart of Amazon
(Source: amazon.co.uk.2017)
A private sector like Amazon has to manage their capital in an efficient manner because
their capital flow is solely dependent on their production process. Therefore, they need
to maintain function of different departments for gaining profit. Amazon maintains a
functional structure and this structure is helping them to reach to a wide range of
customers. Their organisational structure is a reflection of the ways in which leader to
managers direct their employees. This organisation is required to maintain their
organisational structure for supporting competition in the online business. The
organisation has been able to interrelate organisational function with their business
objectives.
While linking objectives of organisation to its function has both merits as well as
demerits and it is needed to be addressed by every business organisation. One of the
disadvantage of connecting functions with objective is that departments are able to run
as per their objectives and able to gain profit. On the other hand linkage among function
and objective might prove to be encouraged sandbagging. The top performers might
display their efforts only to achieve their objectives. For example: Amazon is trying to
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achieve a correlation between its function and objective and it is helping them to
increase their business. However, it is also rendering certain limitation to their
organization. It is making their organisation less flexible. Flexibility need to be achieved
for keeping a control over the performances of any organisation.
LO3: using examples for demonstrating negative and positive influence of macro
environment
P4 Pros and cons of macro environment over an organisation
Political ● Political issues in Asian countries
are posing challenge to e-
commerce.
● Political disruption could create
impact over supply chain.
Economic ● Disposable incomes in UK is
assisting retail sector.
● A good labour market is enhancing
growth in Amazon.
Social ● Popularity of online shopping is
helping online business like
Amazon.
● Customers are getting benefits
from online shopping sites.
Technological ● Use of technical tools is fostering
growth.
● Amazon has been able to gain
customers with the use of
advanced technology while product
delivery.
Legal ● Legal issues are to be managed by
this company.
● Amazon needs to comply their
policies with legislations of
government.
Environmental ● Amazon needs to focus on energy
consumption.
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● They are required to conduct CSR
activities.
Table 1: PESTLE Analysis of Amazon
(Source: amazon.co.uk.2017)
Amazon is not only suffering due to political unrest but also due to pressure groups as
well as lobbying of home market. The attitude of the government towards e-commerce
tends to create substantial influence over retail industries. The implication of trade
unions, level of corruption and right to freedom has been one of the influencing factors
over their business. Amazon is playing an indirect political role in countries like Europe
and US. As opined by Smith and Cockburn (2016, p.20), markets where Amazon hold a
large number of customers, the government tries to give a number of legal stance to
them.
Figure 3: changes in lobbying budget
(Source: amazon.co.uk.2017)
Political issues have been creating large scale impact over their business. In order to
cope up with this political turmoil, Amazon has appointed press secretary of United
States. The above mentioned figure is illustrating the lobbying budget of Amazon. It can
be said that the company has tried to increase their lobbying budget for safeguarding
them against any sort of political issues that includes lawsuits and corporate tax
reforms.
There are certain economic factors that are impacting over the business of this
company. The factors like unemployment level, inflation rates, currency taxes and
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taxation is affecting their organisation. Studies have found that almost 32% of total sales
have been achieved by Amazon form their international ventures (amazon.co.uk.2017).
It is clearly indicating towards the fact that this company is going to face potential risks
from currency exchange. For example: weakening of US dollar might pose serious
challenge to their company. A change in currency rates will going to reduce their sales.
It might also result in low profitability of the organisation. It can be said that a firm is
required to conduct a macro environmental analysis of business environment so as to
identify the potential risks that might be faced by an organisation.
The government is trying to incur taxes from customers who are resorting to online
shopping sites. It has stagnated growth of online retailers and they are incurring losses
due to these taxes. Customers are not satisfied with the taxation rules. It is impacting
over online retailers.
LO4: Internal and external analysis
P5 External and internal analysis of organisation
Strength ❏ Effective relationship with
customers
❏ Cost structure is enabling them to
adopt a competitive edge.
Weakness ❏ Amazon has a low profit margin
❏ Taxation scandal has degraded
brand image.
Threat ❏ Entry barriers are posing challenge
to their company.
❏ Issues related to patent
infringement is influencing their
market shares.
Opportunities ❏ Diversification of the internet
marketing is helping business.
❏ A strong brand presence is an
extended opportunity to this
organisation.
Table 2: SWOT Analysis
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(Source: amazon.co.uk.2017)
One of the strength of Amazon is that they are one of the leaders in the retail sector. In
the year 2016, Amazon has succeeded in obtaining large market share in the online
retail sector. Amazon has entered into the market of China. It is indicating towards the
fact that this company is able to make its global presence. In compare to other online
business, Amazon has been able to establish a strong hold over the potential market.
The strong market presence has been able to encourage this company for fostering
growth.
Increasing sales of Amazon has helping them to gain potential customers
(amazon.co.uk.2017). They are able to reach to millions of people with their effective
brand image. Amazon had been able to reach to wide range of customers with their
Kindle. Innovativeness in business is helping Amazon to take control over the e-
commerce. Leadership is an important to an organisation's growth. The CEO of Amazon
with his innovative ideas have been able to took the organisation to new and improved
standards. Leaders at Amazon have been able to take risks and this risk taking attitude
of the leader has fostered growth of this organisation.
Amazon's business scope is seasonal and therefore they require more workforces at
such seasonal periods. The company is incurring losses due to their cost leadership
framework. Low profit margin are intended to put significant impact over external
environment (Seignot and Clutterbuck, 2016, p.10). During seasonal year, Amazon has
to face workforce fluctuations. This is leading to high costs in training employees. It is
posing challenges to their economic conditions. The increasing competitiveness in the
online businesses is proving risky for retail markets like Amazon. The customers are
able to get a large number of options for online shopping. It is quite important for the
company to increase their brand image by innovating their product. A competitive
advantage can only be gain through innovation and market research.
P6 Interrelation between external and internal environment
The macro as well as micro environmental factors is interrelated to each other. Both
these environmental factor is able to put impact over a marketing campaigns.
Organisations are required to understand its significance while making decision for
conducting marketing procedures. The internal environment factor refers to the strength
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and weakness of a firm. It is quite important for a business organisation to identify the
factors that are impacting over their business. Amazon is facing the rate form political
instability and therefore they are required to abide by the legal requirements of the
government. Both PESTLE and SWOT analysis provided a framework to any
organisation and opens an avenue for further development (Sak et al. 2016, p.39).
One of the weaknesses of Amazon is that it facing losses due to seasonality. They had
to employ more workforces so as to maintain their profit margins. Human resource
department is largely influenced by this weakness. A number of online sites have
emerged into the market and therefore new strategies are to be framed for staying
ahead of competitors. An organisation needs to improve their market status by
promoting their products in an effective manner. The new e-book creation is helping
Amazon to increase their customer’s base.
An organisation could make use of their strength for putting control over a market. The
growing use of internet is posing serious challenges to retail business. In order to
achieve success in the e-commerce. It can be said that Amazon is able to take
advantage of technology in their business. Technology is helping this organisation to
gain success in the e-commerce. Their main aim is to provide high quality products and
services to their customers. The company is able to improve their customer’s service
needs by technical evolution (Phuong, 2014, p.46). It can be said that strength of this
company is directly related to strength of Amazon. It can be said that a firm is required
to encourage their employees to deliver product on time. It might help a company to
gain customer satisfaction.
Another problem that Amazon is facing is regarding legal issues in different countries.
They need to be aware of legal framework of a particular country. It might help them to
retain a large scale market share. Therefore, it can be said that there is a close relation
between macro as well as internal environmental factors. A business could flourish only
with an identification of these factors.
Conclusion
The study gave an overview of the external as well as internal business environment on
Amazon and its impact over the profit margins. It can be said that an organisation need
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to develop strategies for identifying their strength. This is because organisations that are
able to understand their macro as well as internal factors are able to succeed in their
business. Amazon has proved to be one of the most successful online retailers in the
world. However, an analysis if their macro and internal factors have revealed the fact
that they need to bring changes in their organisation by identifying environmental factor
that intends to affect their business. Amazon s facing threat from unstable politics and in
order to achieve success in the e-commerce, this company is required to conduct both
external as well as internal analysis.
An analysis of such factors could help the organisation to achieve success in the online
retail market. An organisation needs to manage their marketing campaigns as well as
brand image in order to grab attention of customers.
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