To What extent does Nike influence the shape of the environments in which it operates?

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Name:          Wafaa Safaei Tolami

PI Number:         0101040220944

Course:          B200 Understanding Business Behavior

Assignment No.:          TMA02

To What extent does Nike influence the shape of the environments in which it operates?

Introduction:

The main objective of this essay is to answer the question “to what extent does Nike influence the shape of the environments in which it operates?”  To reach this objective, I will first talk a little bit about the components of this question, which are “Nike” and “Environments”.

There is a tiny difference between a global and multinational company, but in general they are companies which operate in a number of countries and have production or service outside the country of origin.

About Nike:

The global corporation we know today as Nike originated from a small company founded in 1962 by two sports runners.  The main activity of this small company was importing cheap athletic shoes from Japan and sells them to the U.S. market.  From this small start sprang one of the largest sports wear companies in the world, with products known and distributed in the different five continents.

What is meant by “environments”?

Environments in the business world are the set of internal and external influences the organization is subject to.  An interaction is necessary between the organization/ business and its environments to assure the existence of the business.

The internal environments represent the organization staff, office technology, the wages and finance, etc.

The external environments are categorized to;

  • Micro-environments: represented in the organization’s customers, agents, suppliers or competitors.  
  • Macro-environments which are the political, economic, social/cultural and technological forces.  

It is vital for organizations, regardless of their size or type, to understand the environments they operate in, as they do affect the organization’s performance.

In this discussion I will emphasize on the macro-environments which are known as PEST factors and their two way influence with Nike (Diagram).  

There are many methods to model the macro-environment factors, main four methods are:

  1. STEP checklist:          Structures set of separate but interconnected         influences such as Social, Technology, Economic,         and Political.
  2. Transformation model:          The environment is viewed as a set of inputs         (products and resources) and transformed in the         business to outputs (goods and services).
  3. Mintzberg’s physiognomy:        Where the environment are viewed as a set of         interested people and groups (Cast List) that have         interaction and coalition with the business and the         business activities.
  4. Economic sector analysis:        Where the business activities are grouped according         to its sectors and competition is viewed within each         sector/ market.
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I will use the STEP checklist, being the simple and less complex method to start my discussion with.  Basically, we can identify four major environments that affect any kind of businesses, Social, Technological, Economical and Political environments.

I can say that those environments have a global effect.  This is due to the fact that globalization did not leave anything to be national, including business environments.  While some of the environments might start nationally, its impact soon to become global.  So I guess we can identify Nike’s environments in general to be mixed.

Social Environments:

I found ...

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