Political Environment
The political environment includes government agencies, laws and pressure groups which influence and restrict various organizations and particular in a given society. Many forms of legislation regulate the business.
- Governments develop public policy to guide commerce--sets of laws and regulations limiting business for the good of society as a whole.
- Approximately every marketing activity is subject to a wide range of the laws and regulations. Some trends in political environment include:
1. Increasing legislation to following:
a) Protect the companies from each other.
b) Protecting the consumers from unjust business practices.
c) Protecting interests of the society against unrestrained business behaviour.
2. Changing in government agency enforcement. New laws and their enforcement shall continue or increase.
3). Increased emphasis on morals and socially responsible actions. Socially responsible firms actively seek out the ways to protect long-run interests of their consumers and environment.
a) Enlightened companies support their managers to look beyond the regulation and "do the right thing."
b) Recent scandals have increased concern regarding ethics and social responsibility.
c) The explosion in e-commerce and Internet marketing has formed a new set of social and moral issues. Concerns are Security, Privacy Access by weak or unauthorized groups.