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Analysis of the External Environment of Business
The Technological Environment
The external business environment consists of four elements, they are as follows: Political, Economic, Social and technological. It would be impossible to analyse the whole environment in one essay, I have therefore decided to focus my essay on the technological environment. I have chosen this area to focus on because as Palmer and Hartley point out, it is one area that is forcing immense change in the external business environment.
?The business environment is at present moving through a dynamic and turbulent phase driven by technological change, globalization and increasingly competitive markets' (Palmer and Hartley 2002).
I will be researching and analysing the major changes that have taken place in the technological environment over the last ten years and explore how they have affected business practice. I will also be discussing how these changes have implicated on the Public Relations Industry.
Technology is defined as:
?the sum of knowledge of the means and method of producing goods and services' (Bannock et al 2003).
This authoritative definition of technology assumes technology only refers to the artifacts themselves rather than the way they are used and the theories governing their application. Human knowledge however, is an essential ingredient of technology and I therefore prefer the following definition:
?The application of available knowledge and skills to create and use materials, processes and products' (Needle 2004)
This wider definition relates the application of knowledge to the wider processes of business practices i.e. the production and ...