Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Unless your course title is "Finding Information on the Internet," I suspect your assignment is to develop a PEST analysis for LCD TV's, not spend hours trying to find a complete analysis on the internet and summarize it. And unless your course is called, "Persuading Professionals to Give Away Answers," I would suspect that us giving you the answer would be considered unethical by your professor. And professors read this forum for that reason.

So let's look at the work that you should be doing to arrive at a PEST analysis:

The first thing that's inportant is from what reference region are you looking? Each of the macroenvironmental areas examined in a PEST is different for different regions. Also, I am assuming that the analysis isn't on "LCD TV's" so much as it is on a firm that is manufacturing LCD TV's in that region because PEST analysis is usually completed for a firm, not a product. So for a firm manufacturing LCD TV's in the region of interest, let's look at each of the areas:

• Political
  This includes factors like tax policy, employment laws, environmental regulations, trade restrictions and tariffs, and political stability. So for LCD TV's in the region of interest, what are the various tax, employment, environmental laws affecting the market and manufacturing of LCD TV's? What laws are in place affecting the inport and export of LDC TV's? How stable is the region of interest from a political basis? How are all of these factors likely to change in the future? How would changes affect the region and firm with respect to LCD TV's?



• Economic
  This area includes factors of economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rate. In the region of interest, what is the economic conditions - inflation rate, stability of money value, interest rates? Is the area economy growing in or declining? What's the future hold ecomomically? How will this affect the firm and the market for LCD TV's?



• Social
  Factors to examine here are: cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. How would the firm be affected by the region culture? Is the region health conscious or not? How would this affect the firm and LCD TV's? Is the population growing? Declining? What's the age distribution? What are career attitudes? What are the safety aspects? How long do people live? How much leisure time do they have? Is there many languages? What are their attitudes to technological products and foreign products? Are there religious aspects? How are all these changing? How would the change affect the firm and LCD TV's?



• Technology
  This includes R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. Are there supporting technological infrastrures - like TV stations people would want to watch? DVD players and movie rental places? How's the quality mentality of the people? How does the region rate in each of these and what change will the future see? How is the firm affected now and in the future?