While the internal business environment refers to the factors affecting the business from within, the global environment describes factors in the business external or macro environment (Holman 23). The business macro environment describes factors like competition, clients, industries, market, companies and even clients.
In the light of these, business environmental scanning in business can be described as the study and prospective intepretation of the factors influencing business performance. Some of these factors include economic, technological, social and political, including the trends that power businesses, industries and markets in entirety.
At Coinstar Company, the process of environmental scanning should include such factors as emerging issues, trends as well as expectations of the various interest parties in the business. Issues, as featured in environmental scanning, often refers to the forerunners of particular business trend breakers.
Business environment analysis enables businesses categorize different factors as threats or opportunities, thereby devising strategies that enable them navigate the journey in their environment. The following are examples of elements that can be opportunities or threats to at Coinstar, depedning on how the company appraoches it
Social trends: Social trends in business refers to activities that are participated in by the business in the course of its operations. These trends include marketing, supply chain management and cultural aspects. Social trends can be business opportunities depending on how the business reacts to it (Diven and Mark 57). For instance, when a business decides to change its marketing patterns and supply chains to feature various innovations and technological advancements, the development can be an opportunity to the business