Social Factors – Business Environment

Buyer’s behavior is strongly influenced by members of their family. Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self-concept. Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products. Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes. The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, and social needs. Customer possesses specific belief and attitude towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior; therefore, marketers are interested in them.

Every consumer is an individual, but still belongs to a group. The group to which a consumer belongs is called a membership group. This is a direct and simple classification. The second group type is a reference group. The reference group influences the self-image of consumers and consumers’ behavior. Usually there are many smaller reference groups, which are formed by family, close friends, neighbors, work group or other people that consumers associate with.

Legal factor - In a situation where for example a government creates a new law which could limit the demand for your product like the banning of smoking, this can seriously affect the growth of the company.

Economic factors – which include interest rates, economic growth, exchange rates, inflation and taxation changes (Nieman, G; 1998). The change the economy can have a major impact on the behaviour of the business. For example: inflation may cause a higher wage demand from employees (Herrigton, Kew & Kew; 2009).

They describe the individual as part of a group or indirectly influenced by a group. Based on these three independent variables we based our hypotheses as such:

All businesses will be affected by factors in its environment. The following are the 3 main factors affecting businesses;

Just like what we see, hear, and do everyday, our sociological factors also have effects on our perceptions of the world and things around us. An individual’s social location can lead him to wealth and success or prevent him from them. The positive consequences of being social animals lead human beings to become more social as time goes by, and symbolic interaction among individuals help us connect and understand each other in a society. Through the lenses of such sociological theories, sociological imagination “enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society” and helps us understand the connections between social structures and our individual lives (Milgram).

Some of these factors are, if there is competition in the same category, the amount of goods produced, the demand for the products and more.

Political factors relate to way in which changes in the government and government policies can influence the business.

a group while still retaining the individual within that group. In this paper we were divided into

The first factor is the failure to react to changes in society or the marketplace. Many business owners think that their success in the past will continue to work and help their business grow, but in reality, society and demands change all the time, especially with the development of technology. Failure to adapt to these changes will cause many businesses to become outdated and lose to their competition. Another factor for failure is the inability to price a product or service correctly. There are many examples of this, one including a business making a product expensive for customers even though it isn't of high quality. This mistake will make businesses lose their customer base and eventually fail. Another example is if a business tries to make a high quality product, but also sell it for a cheap price. This will make the business lose money, therefore narrowing its chances of achieving business success. Although there are many failure factors, one important one that means the difference between a successful business and a failed one is the lack of financial management. Good financial skills are needed in a business in order to control and track the money that it earns and spends. An example of this failure factor is if a business chooses to spend more money than it can earn, and also chooses to spend it on something unproductive. This will cause the business to lose its money and fail. Overall, there are

Risk factors are demonstrated within sociodemographic variables that can make the likelihood of abuse and neglect more apparent due to the additional stress they place on the upbringing of the child.

1. (a) Privilege is defined as a favor or right granted to some people, but not to everyone.

Sometimes cultural difference between countries can cause a negative impact when conducting free market businesses. According to the textual evidence, economic advancement and globalization may be important factors in society change. The culture of societies may also change as they become richer because economic progress affects a number of other factors, which in turn influence culture.

Factors that happen in the external environment are known as external factors or influences. These will affect the main internal functions of the business and possibly the objectives of the business and its strategies. The main factor that affects most business is the degree of competition - how fiercely other businesses compete with the products that another business makes. The other factors that can affect the business are: