Marketing Channels and Business Performance

This assignment delves into various aspects of business strategy and its impact. It examines the role of marketing channels in supply chain management, analyzing how they contribute to overall efficiency. The assignment also investigates the strategic fit between innovation strategies and the business environment, focusing on delivering optimal business performance. Finally, it touches upon modern social work theory and the implications of sharing high growth across generations within a specific demographic context.

Strategic Management
External Environmental influence on
Telecommunications industry

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................1
Introduction on Telecommunication industry.........................................................................1
The Concept of Innovation.....................................................................................................2
Future trends of telecommunication industry.........................................................................2
Theories and frameworks.......................................................................................................2
Environmental analysis and its influence on innovation in Telecommunication industry.....3
Porter’s Five Force Analysis..................................................................................................4
PESTEL Analysis...................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

ASSESSMENT 1
Introduction on Telecommunication industry
The present report has depicted a carried investigation on the telecommunication industry
at a global level, where there exist several multinational telecommunications companies in the
entire nation. This is basically on considering their expansion over the years where
telecommunication companies have widely extended their presence in almost all European
nations like Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Portugal, etc.
(Gunnigle, Brewster and Morley, 2017). Companies operating in this field are mostly focussed
on provisioning broadband, fixed line, mobile, subscription of television and IT services. Main
companies are BT Group PLC, Vodafone UK; EE limited whose success lies within their
inexpensive supply of resources. Also, they are known to manufacture their telecommunication
services by using advanced techniques for satisfying the exact needs of the users (Wang and et.
Al., 2014). This is for example to discourse upon a realistic firm operating in telecommunication
industry named BT Group where it has perfectly positioned itself in this sector.
In contradiction to which, one of its well-known contender named EE limited has faced
some unexpected turn in its business and hence lost its individual existence in the market. This is
basically in regard to specify the merge among both these companies operating in similar
industrial sector with separate number of services and BT Group with more strong services have
taken over the products and services of EE limited. The success of this particular
telecommunication enterprise at a global level is only due to its vast range of services that has
bought significant changes in its business. With the help of attractive business schemes and
management structure, companies operating in this industrial sector has been able to meet the
changing demands of their customers with assistance of global trending system. There are
millions of people associated with this industrial sector that has contributed to its raised growth
level (Lewis, 2014).
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The Concept of Innovation
Today’s modern era is famously known for its innovative outlook where advancement is a
foremost concern of not only the organisations striving to serve the society but also a major
matter of apprehension for individuals living in the society. This in turn gives a principal sense of
consideration to the companies to innovate and serve the changing requirements of their
customers (Rangan, 2015). Innovation is thereby specified to be an activity undertaken by both
individuals and the establishments to bring some sort of change in themselves as well as in the
surrounding. This requires them to break the monotonous schedules by together altering their
dominant methods of thinking. It can however be done by introducing new behavioural thinking
or initiating new work standards. There exists three distinct type of innovations that can be opted
by the firms operating in telecommunication industry and are known as product, process and
behavioural innovation.
Future trends of telecommunication industry
Telecommunication industry is believed to be a fast paced industry that has already
witnessed some major changes as a resultant outcome of technological advancement in the
nation. It is therefore expected by the end of 2020 that the telecommunication industry will have
to deal with both challenges and opportunities with a massive size and scale of its existence.
High number of mobile networking connections with a raised adoption of smart-phones also
depicts some vital forecasting for the future of telecommunication industry (Bello, Zeadally and
Badra, 2017). Lastly, disruptive innovation, already being a substantial trend in this industry will
knock this sector to a great extent. Some such influential disruption includes internet of things
(IOT), saturation, mobility and security, etc. These forecasts thus require the Telecom operators
to plan accordingly and try expanding their operations to bring some vital infrastructural changes
as a way of resolving the upcoming challenges due to such rising technical progression.
Theories and frameworks
This is mainly in context to make a significant use of such theoretical frameworks that
directly assists in analysing the external environment of telecommunication industry. For this
purpose, it is firstly important to divide the external business environment in two major parts
namely micro and macro. The micro environment can be assessed with the help of Porter’s five
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force model with a foremost consideration of evaluating the immediate impact of innovation on
the chosen industrial sector of telecommunication along with the impact of change onto it
(Prajogo, 2016). Pestle analysis on another hand is together referred to be an essential analytical
technique with a primary concern of evaluating the macro environment of an industry. The
PESTEL framework is mainly composed of factors like political, social, economic,
technological, environmental and legal factor. These essential factors are significant in terms of
addressing the effects that can be made onto the business with a special consideration of
innovation. In order to do effective strategic planning, PESTEL analysis is used as a tool by
many well-recognized companies (Kováříková, Grosová and Baran, 2017). Moreover, PESTEL
analysis also provides knowledge about competitive advantages, marketing planning and product
development to the management of companies operating in telecommunication sector.
Environmental analysis and its influence on innovation in Telecommunication industry
The external business environment includes the surrounding circumstances and different
business conditions for sustainability. Managers of the organization’s need to focus on
understanding the external business environment before commencing a business. The external
business environment is essential in order to identify market the current state of competition
prevailing in the market and to undertake effective strategies for a profitable continuation of the
business (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). On whose basis, the organizations are able to
implement effective procedures that are required for a successful growth of the business. It also
increases the efficiency of the undertaken business process by considering any future risks.
External factors are required to be acknowledged by the organizations where it involves social,
economic, technological, political and social structure of that country and directly impacts on
their functioning.
This helps in a sustainable development of the business with long-term performance of their
existing functions. Moreover, the external business environment factors are not controlled by the
management and rather depend upon the external factors of the market in which the
organisations are operating their business (Chen and et. Al., 2014). In addition to it, there exists
different type of external business environmental factors namely political, social cultural,
governmental regulations or legal and technical, etc. Each and every external business
environmental factor have both positive and negative influence on the business. In other words,
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different type of external factors distinctly impacts upon the organisational performance, both
positively and negatively.
Porter’s Five Force Analysis
Porter’s five force model is an essential analytical tool used for determining the
competitive position of an industry. It is known to assess the micro environmental status of an
industry by using five contending forces. It is also believed that understanding competitive forces
is vitally important where it tends to disclose the underlying roots and causes behind the current
profitability status of telecommunication industry. It together provides an outline for expecting
the upcoming challenges that may easily influence the current competitive positioning of an
industrial sector. Below is the Porter’s five force analysis of Telecommunication industry-
 Threat of new entrant- Low
There exists a low threat of new entrant in the telecommunication industry where it is mainly due
to a huge requirement of capital investment and a restricted access to finance (Gonsen, 2016). It
is therefore an apparent fact where owning a Telecom licensing is typically referred to be a costly
affair with no so readily available monetary assistance. This may together impact on the
innovative strength of the organisations operating in telecommunications where they may
restrain from investing into their R&D segment.
 Threat of substitute products- Moderate
It together stands to be at a moderate level where internet is one of the biggest threat to those
who are still operating as non-traditional Telecom operators. This is for instance to state about a
vital use of internet telephony that are easily cutting off the calling rates. Although, it together
brings some major opportunities for brining innovation in this field where the entities operating
in this sector can make a profitable use of internet and link their services to it.
 Bargaining power of buyers- High
The bargaining power of buyers is relatively higher than the other forces of this analytical model
which is basically due to raised choices of Telecom products and services (Kozlenkova and et.
Al., 2015). On considering this aspect, people are now more preferred to buy low priced
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commodities with some creative functionalities in it. This could directly accelerate the innovative
base of enterprises operating in this sector where they can also launch low priced products with
highly innovative applications in it.
 Bargaining power of suppliers- Moderate
This particular force is referred to be at a moderate level where there exists a very limited pool of
talented workforce to contribute in this sector. It is mainly in context to a rising need of engineers
and other top level authorities with a full-fledged knowledge in this sector to effectively deal
with the latest technologies. This situation can together hamper the innovative context of
Telecom industry
 Competitive rivalry- High
There exists a cut throat rivalry among the companies operating in this industrial sector. It is
however due to upcoming technologies that are newly introduced but still prompting a bundle of
substitute services to the users (Tiwana, 2014). Also, it is due to yet another well-known fact
where the organisations operating in this sector duly suffers from high exit barrier, because of its
specialised equipment’s. It is therefore to avoid low profit generation from such advanced issues,
they are recommended to make use of low priced products with some pioneering quality to
attract the users in greater number.
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PESTEL Analysis
The significance of PESTEL analysis is already discussed in the above segment, and
further discussion will be provided in this segment to apply the analytical model in
telecommunication industries. In other words, this segment of the essay includes political, socio-
cultural, economic, technological, legal and environmental factors.
Political factor: Political factors are the first factor through which various rules and regulations
are implemented by the government. It also promoted the implementation of technologies and
involvement of international investor. Through the financial report of the Telecommunication
industries group, it was found that large number of companies operating in this particular sector
are largely benefited from the existence of Brexit. The main reason is a rising interest rate that
will reduce their pension liability (Song, Storesletten, Wang and Zilibotti, 2015). In European
Union legislation (EUL), this industrial sector is developing in the region such as fibre-access,
spectrum, net-neutrality and green ICT widening. These are the new business operation and
succession for the companies operating in this specific sector. They have made changes in their
latest policy, the Digital-Agenda confirms EU commitment and from now onwards, the
enterprises operating in this particular sector can promote new high-speeds networking services.
Strategic political relationships are maintained by this industry at both domestic and international
level. However, the changing policies and telecommunication areas in the country will affect the
country.
Economic factor: This factor of PESTEL analysis includes changes in the economy of a specific
country. In other words, the economic factor includes interest rate, exchange rate, taxation rate,
inflation rate, wage rates, unemployment level, working hours and recently recovered recession.
Globalization and industrialization has been the major changes for Telecommunication industry
(Coccia, 2017). Due to large-scale operations there are many changes that this sector has
provided to its clients and includes efficient communication and new products. However, the
challenges have affected them economically as they are providing improved cost-efficient and
low-cost rates. Though, there are high scope in the telecommunication industry in UK and
Europe.
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Sociological factor: The social trend is optimized with the help of the sociology factor. In other
sense, organizations operating in telecommunication sector get influenced by factors like health
consequences, cultural norms, expectations of the individual, population growth rate, career
attitudes and age distribution, etc. On the basis of these factors, preference of individual can
vary; therefore, all these factors should be considered while implementing any of these
strategies. Moreover, changes in social trends also enhance the availability of products through
the high or low demand of the customers. In addition, the willingness of the individual to work is
one of the main influences of the social factor (Payne, 2015). There are more earning rates as
there are high increase investment rates. Up-gradation in the 4G technology and other mobile
facilities offered by the companies operating in this particular sector has gained the confidence of
its customers to a great extent. Along with this, they have also resolved the networking issues
and have reached more numbers of users in a limited time period.
Technological factor: This factor includes fast advancing and developing the world of
technology. In order to deal with the modern workforce, an organization seriously needs
technological advancement. In other sense, technological changes can impact the empowerment
of an organization. The technological directly affects empowerment, as more of the process is
handled through machines; therefore, chances of error get reduced. Thus, new procedures and
process are created by new and innovative technologies. By adopting the latest technology, an
organization can easily deal with online marketing, bar coding and online transaction that was
not possible a couple of years back. Moreover, technology also reduces costs of operational
activity and lead to innovation through quality improvement. As a result, both the customers and
organization can get benefits through the technical developments. Telecommunication industry
has considered the technology as the major factor for the development. Wi-Fi and 4G technology
provided by this sector are the new changes satisfying the changing requirement of the users.
Along with this, they are focusing on high speed internet through 5G technology. The promise to
5G brings greater speed and efficiency to serve the users with less dormancy. Also, there exist a
drive for launching the 5G service for the users in the trial markets at the end of 2017
(Telecommunications Industry Outlook 2017, 2018). Therefore, it is expected that by the end of
2020, there will be a huge coverage of 5G services in the market to make things more connective
and supportive in the future. Additionally, they are concentrating on the concept of Cloud
services to achieve economies of scale. Cloud computing on another hand is apparent to serve
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the large scale enterprises to a great extent. It is with a special assistance of maintaining their
large scale data with easy and regular updation of their applications. Although, it is currently at a
range of 52% and is expected to grow by 25% more by the end of 2020.
Environmental factor: The ecological and geographic issues are included in this factor such as
climate, weather, and place. Due to global warming, major climate changes occur for an
organization and it is becoming a significant issue that needs to be considered. Other factors like
weather, pollution, availability of raw material and so on are considered under environmental
factors. They all are essential for the production of services in organizations operating in
telecommunication industry (Frue, 2016). If these are not considered by the companies operating
in this specific sector, they may face various issues such as unavailability of natural resources,
ineffective weather and unfavourable climatic conditions. They are developing in positive ways
by adopting the sustainability development and protecting the environment in all possible
manners. They are also making development for the reduction in carbon emission.
Legal factor: Changes in legislation might impact on employment, quotes, materials, resources,
import/exports, and taxation. According to the behaviour of Telecommunication industry, the
legal changes largely affect the organizations (Leinwand, 2017). It is in accordance to the
disability discrimination legislation, the establishments working in this sector needs to pay equal
attention on disabled employees for an improved career optimization. There are multiple changes
that the enterprises operating in this particular sector has to face due to changing regulatory
norms created by the telecom regulation at a global level.
CONCLUSION
The above report has concluded the environmental factors impacting on the innovative
context of telecommunication industry and the organisations operating in it. For this, two main
analytical models have been used to assess the external environment of Telecom industry namely
Porter’s five forces and Pestle. From which, both positive and negative impact of the evaluated
factors have been found that are evident to influence innovation in this sector. There are various
positive impacts that are associated with such factors that provide opportunities for implementing
advanced technologies. Promoting business at global platform by attracting international
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investors is also referred to be yet another considerable aspect. Along with this, all the rights of
clients and employees are also needed to be protected. Any adverse impact on the environment
can also get reduced. Huge revenue is generated by implementing various taxation and trading
rates. Furthermore, changes in social trends also enhance the availability of products as per the
demand of the customers inspiring the drift of innovation.
In addition to this, different countries have their own specific laws and order making
system that often creates a difficult situation for the firms operating in this particular industrial
sector of telecommunication to comply with every legislative procedure. Due to increments in
taxes like VAT, etc., is seriously impacting on the sales of enterprises operating in
telecommunication industry. This is mainly on considering an unstable economy which is one of
the serious concerns impacting on the fiscal stability of the nation. However, the nature of social
trend is rapidly changing due to diversified settings which makes it difficult for the organisations
associated with this industrial sector to cope up with the necessity of bringing innovation. For
example, a popular product might lose attraction tomorrow where people are willing to get more
improved services with latest products that are much more advanced in nature and are one step
ahead of what was launched previously. This in turn unbalances the investment plans of the
companies associated with this industrial sector. Resultantly, they finally start resisting to spend
more monetary funds and other requisite resources in their R&D segment to launch something
more pioneering in nature. In other sense, the taste of customers is changing day by day, which is
largely affecting telecommunication industry and is considered to be a socio-cultural factor. The
technological factor includes cyber-crime and data theft risk which is known to make a negative
impact on the consumers.
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REFERENCES
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Chen, Y. and et. Al., 2014. IT capability and organizational performance: the roles of business
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pp.326-342.
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problem-driven to support competitive advantage of firms. Technology Analysis & Strategic
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Gonsen, R., 2016. Technological capabilities in developing countries: Industrial biotechnology
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Gunnigle, P., Brewster, C. and Morley, M., 2017. European industrial relations. Policy and
Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield
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Payne, M., 2015. Modern social work theory. Oxford University Press.
Prajogo, D.I., 2016. The strategic fit between innovation strategies and business environment in
delivering business performance. International Journal of Production Economics. 171.
pp.241-249.
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Rangan, S. ed., 2015. Performance and Progress: Essays on Capitalism, Business, and Society.
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Worthington, I., & Britton, C. (2015). The business environment (1st ed.). Harlow [u.a]: Pearson.
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