Contemporary Business Environment

INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY

Name of the Student: Elena Isabela Vasile

Student ID: C100049564

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Executive summary

This was a report based on the company of water bottles that has been launched in the market

of the UK. This company produces those bottles that carry this type of water. Water bottles

are carefully made with the best kind of plastic and some made from rubber. A water bottle is

a very important element as it transports water and holds to make it transportable. There are

different types of bottles and other containers that tend to be remade into other things after

being recycled. This report has focused on analysing the business environment of water bottle

manufacturing industry in the UK along with the influence of the market economy on the

business operations of the organisation.

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 Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................3

Business Environment................................................................................................................4

Market Economy and Role of the Economy..............................................................................7

Economic Environment..............................................................................................................8

Global Business Environment....................................................................................................8

Conclusion................................................................................................................................11

References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction

This report will be focused on a water bottle company. There will be an understanding of the

key elements of the internal environment of this company and the great interaction with the

external environment as well as the identification of the market and how the economy

functions and what kind of role that the government plays in it. There will be an examination

of the economic environment within which the businesses tend to operate in the market along

with the examination of the global business environments and the explanation of the

countries that tend to benefit from action of trade with each of the countries. This is a water

bottle company that produces distilled water in packaged companies that is also known as

purified or mineral water. This company produces water that may or may not be carbonated,

both kinds. This company produces those bottles that carry this type of water. Water bottles

are carefully made with the best kind of plastic and some made from rubber. A water bottle is

a very important element as it transports water and holds to make it transportable. This

company has two kinds of water bottle materials that are produced, one plastic and the other

is metal. Glass was an option but realised that it could be dangerous and may be hazardous.

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 Figure 1: Plastic water bottle

(Source: Villegas et al., 2019)

Business Environment

Internal factors

Value system

The company's actual values and beliefs are influenced by the people working in it, the

behaviour and the ethics. These are one of the elements that help in the achievement of

objectives and the mission of the organisation (Villegas et al., 2019). The system of value

shows the behaviour of the employees and what these people are taught in the company. The

behaviours of the employees influence the companies a lot.

Mission and Objectives

This company's basic objective is to make the most of the business and earn profits as it is

with hard work and dedication. The most important thing is the level of direction and how

that is controlled by the managers in the assessment of the work and the management of the

employees to do the work properly and in a more productive way (Crone et al., 2019). The

choices of the strategies of the business along with the policies are all influenced by the

overall mission.

Organisational Structure

The structure of the organisation is very important for the business to do well and bring in

maximum profits. Every company needs to have a structure of the organisation that is quick

to make certain decisions (Jain et al., 2019). The company will be using the matrix

organisational structure to ensure maximum efficiency in terms of communication and

operations.

External Factors

Technological factors

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Technology is something that has come in and dominated the world with its advancements.

Even though this has come as a great chance for everyone, companies tend to gain a lot of

benefits or advantages from this factor (Pacheco-Vega, 2019). Technology is something that

no person can do without. Whether it's education or jobs, the internet and technology is a

necessity for everyone to do well and for the companies to develop and grow. Due to online

shopping, this company has done well.

Figure 2: External Environment

(Source: Pacheco-Vega, 2019)

Economic factors

What state the economy of a country is has a great effect on the company as there may be a

shortage of funds. The economy of a country plays a very great role in the company's external

environment. Being this is a company from the UK, the government had been disrupted after

the pandemic just like every other government (Lawson et al., 2022). The countries have

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taken time to get back to a normal state after this outbreak. Some companies still are not able

to get the countries back.

Political and Legal factors

Each country has its own rules and regulations which the companies must fulfil and abide by.

If a company wants to put its line of products or brand into the market in another country

other than its own, it must first look at the rules that that country has (Howell et al., 2020). It

also must check whether the product has anything that will go against any religion or society

in that specific country.

Market Economy and Role of the Economy

Market Economy

In the economy of the market, most of the decision making is done through transactions that

are voluntary which are done according to the laws of demand and supply. This economy

gives the company owners the freedom that is needed in order to get the profit by creating a

set of outputs that are known to be much more valuable than the inputs that are supposed to

be used (Tosun et al., 2020). Economies that are mostly market oriented produce outcomes

that are much better but it might be different on the balance between the planning and the

markets depending upon the long-term wellbeing. These economies work by using a lot of

forces out of demand and supply which help to determine the quantities and prices that are

appropriate for the services and goods that need to be produced in the economy. The land,

labour and capital are combined by cooperating with the banks and the employees of the

company in order to produce services and goods for other companies and customers of the

company (Garcia-Suarez et al., 2019). There are buyers and sellers that buy and sell products

and services back and forth the company by agreeing on the terms and conditions of the

transactions that are to be made on a voluntary basis that is most probably based on the

preferences of the customers.

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Role of the Economy

Regulator of the business

The legislation and the policies of the business. There are plenty of areas that are indirect in

the government of the business. The government has great control over the functioning of the

private companies, for example, the water bottle companies (Borusiak et al., 2021). This is

only possible only through the monetary policies and the budgetary. These are the types of

functions that are related with the trade and aims of the business and the industry that tends to

lay down limitations for the industry.

Promoter of business

The role of the government is also the role of a promoter of the government which is related

to the industries that tend to provide funds to the companies in the industry. This also

includes different kinds of incentives and creates facilities of infrastructure that are very

important for the growth and development along with the investment of the industries

(Makov et al., 2019). Subsidies are provided by the governments and there are also holidays

for tax in order to attract the investment processes in areas that are backward.

Entrepreneur

This tends to be known as growth that is impressive in the public sector most of the time.

There are also investors that are private which are guided by the motives of profit which

tends to show that there is no interest for the development of the products and services for

public usage.

Economic Environment

An economic environment is known to be a system in which there are plenty of factors and a

wide range that helps to interact and influences the behaviour of the customers. This tends to

include the Microenvironment and macroenvironment factors that tend to affect the business

that is successful in which a business tends to operate. There are constraints that are external

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which are a part of the environment (Gautam, 2020). There are plenty of factors that affect

the business which are outside of the business. This is a very big part of the business and

known as a fundamental part of it. The structure of the company is very important but it is

very important to know that the organisational structure is not the same as the economic

environment. The factors are macroeconomics and microeconomics.

Global Business Environment

The global business environment is an extremely competitive sphere in economics. The

business environment has grown, developed and flourished into leaps and bounds with

globalisation and privatisation and where the world is interconnected with technology

(Ballantine et al., 2019). A global business environment is one which refers to a diverse

business environment comprising several markets or countries. When a company based in a

particular country expands and goes multinational, the sphere of its operation expands to the

global business environment.

Figure 3: Global Business Environment

(Source: Ballantine et al., 2019)

The global business environment has been changing from the past couple of years. Many

companies are shifting their focus to the Southern markets which are relatively developing or

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less developed. Before, companies were manufacturing goods in such developing countries to

sell in the richer developed markets because of cheap and readily available labour and raw

materials (March et al., 2020). Nowadays, with the increased purchasing power of people

across these developing markets, these developing countries are manufacturing goods for

their own markets as well as the others. Moreover, the latest trend and issue that concerns the

businesses is the question of environment and sustainability. Companies are now moving

towards a more sustainable operation that addresses environmental issues so that the

regulations are not against them. Very soon, the global business environment will be a

sustainable one or if not semi sustainable.

International Trade

As a result of this global business environment, international trade between two or more

countries happens. Such trade involves exchange or rather export or import of goods and

services, information, human capital, assets and many more (Tosun et al., 2020). A country

can benefit from international trade in the following ways:

● International trade allows for counties to earn revenues by exporting the goods produced

or raw materials available within the country to the outside world;

● Similarly, it also allows for goods and services produced abroad that are not available in

the country to be imported and utilised by the consumers within the country (Borusiak et

al., 2021).

● International trade and commerce keep the world moving. Consumers around the world

can purchase whatever they want or need with the help of international trade which is

now even faster and technology based. Moreover, such trade relations constitute a huge

part of a nation's economy (Crone et al., 2019). A nation's GDP is measured based on the

amount of exports and imports it makes. The higher the GDP, the richer a country is.

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● International trade also allows for more availability of diverse products that consumers

can choose from. The global business environment is competitive with each player trying

to have a share in the market. As a result, one is determined to provide the best product

that is possible hence resulting in a variety of options to choose from.

● 4.International trade also helps in maintaining good and friendly relations with nation

states. Tensions can be eased and good relations can be nurtured with the help of trade

agreements and treaties (Howell et al., 2020). Such movement of goods and services to

and from one another helps in instilling a sense of trust and cooperation in each other.

Conclusion

To conclude, there has been a report on the water bottle company. There are a few benefits

that water bottles give back to companies and customers. Water bottles have material that is

reusable. These types of bottles are usually recycled in its original and initial state. These

water bottles can be remade into various other secondary materials that are good for the

environment. It helps do good for the environment and help with the bad polluted things like

bad plastic that destroys the oceans. There are different types of bottles and other containers

that tend to be remade into other things after being recycled. Bottles that are plastic have a

reduced weight because most are small. This tends to reduce the cost of transport by the

recyclables to the centres of recycling.

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References

Ballantine, P.W., Ozanne, L.K. and Bayfield, R., (2019). Why buy free? exploring

perceptions of bottled water consumption and its environmental

consequences. Sustainability, 11(3), p.757.

Borusiak, B., Szymkowiak, A., Pierański, B. and Szalonka, K., (2021). The impact of

environmental concern on intention to reduce consumption of single-use bottled

water. Energies, 14(7), p.1985.

Crone, B.C., Speth, T.F., Wahman, D.G., Smith, S.J., Abulikemu, G., Kleiner, E.J. and

Pressman, J.G., (2019). Occurrence of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in source

water and their treatment in drinking water. Critical reviews in environmental science and

technology, 49(24), pp.2359-2396.

Garcia-Suarez, T., Kulak, M., King, H., Chatterton, J., Gupta, A. and Saksena, S., (2019).

Life cycle assessment of three safe drinking-water options in India: boiled water, bottled

water, and water purified with a domestic reverse-osmosis device. Sustainability, 11(22),

p.6233.

Gautam, B., (2020). Chemical evaluation of trace elements in bottled water. Journal of

Healthcare Engineering, 2020, pp.1-16.

Howell, R., Sinha, K.M., Wagner, N., Doorn, N. and van Beers, C., (2020). Consumption of

bottled water at the bottom of the pyramid: Who purchases first?. Journal of

Macromarketing, 40(1), pp.31-50.

Jain, B., Singh, A.K. and Susan, M.A.B.H., (2019). The world around bottled water. Bottled

and Packaged Water, pp.39-61.

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Lawson, E., Bunney, S., Cotterill, S., Farmani, R., Melville ‐Shreeve, P. and Butler, D.,

(2022). COVID‐19 and the UK water sector: Exploring organizational responses through a

resilience framework. Water and Environment Journal, 36(1), pp.161-171.

Makov, T., Meylan, G., Powell, J.T. and Shepon, A., (2019). Better than bottled water?—

Energy and climate change impacts of on-the-go drinking water stations. Resources,

Conservation and Recycling, 143, pp.320-328.

March, H., Garcia, X., Domene, E. and Sauri, D., (2020). Tap water, bottled water or in-home

water treatment systems: Insights on household perceptions and choices. Water, 12(5),

p.1310.

Pacheco-Vega, R., (2019). (Re) theorizing the politics of bottled water: water insecurity in

the context of weak regulatory regimes. Water, 11(4), p.658.

Tosun, J., Scherer, U., Schaub, S. and Horn, H., (2020). Making Europe go from bottles to

the tap: Political and societal attempts to induce behavioral change. Wiley Interdisciplinary

Reviews: Water, 7(3), p.e1435.

Villegas, A., Molinos-Senante, M. and Maziotis, A., (2019). Impact of environmental

variables on the efficiency of water companies in England and Wales: A double-bootstrap

approach. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26, pp.31014-31025.

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