5. Macroenvironment

The tendency of organisations and individuals within them is to focus upon factors within their specific core-market system that are perceived as possible future opportunities or threats. The influence of changing technologies is attributed to actions by suppliers, competitors or intermediaries, or a shift in the behaviour pattern of end users. However, as shown in Fig. 5.1, there are other variables external to the core system that can influence future organisational performance. The key difference between the core market and these macro-environmental factors is that the latter are not sectorally specific, in some cases influencing the performance of entire economies. The problem confronting the individual and the organisation is that identifying and accurately forecasting the impact of these often more diffuse macro-environmental factors is more difficult than identifying the potential impact of changes in core-market variables (Liao et al. 2001).