Socio-cultural aspects of environment

Within the PEST model, the ‘Social’ aspects can have a significant effect on the ability of a business to succeed in any chosen environment. Failure to understand how important these factors are can lead to poor performance.

Read the report of EuroDisneys’s early challenges (Newell, 2013) with French business culture.

Social trends, fashion and culture are all examples of what we would call ‘social factors’.

These factors affect our attitudes, opinions, perception, cognition and interests, and can impact how we regard a product or service. This, in turn, can influence a business’s sales and strategy.

Social factors

Social factors include:

• Population size and rate of growth
• Age distribution
• Wealth and income disparities
• Social mobility
• Job market mobility and attitude to work
• Health and education levels

Cultural factors

Cultural factors include:

• Language
• Religion
• Values and attitudes

A business should make efforts to track social changes and align its products and services with customers’ changing preferences.

Not responding to social changes in society can be fatal. The failure of Blackberry illustrates this point. Led by Apple and Android devices, smartphone users became more and more comfortable with touchscreen devices.

BlackBerry failed to adapt to these changes and stuck with the idea of a physical keyboard on their devices.

References

_{Orszag, P. (2018). China’s Aging Problem Is a Serious Threat to Growth. Live Mint https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/lknfrgnCa2isaIQzKqA5MI/Opinion–Chinas-ageing-problem-is-a-serious-threat-to-grow.html}

_{Newell, L. (2013). Mickey Goes to France: A Case Study of the Euro Disneyland Negotiations. Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, 15*. https://cardozojcr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Newell.pdf}