Hassan Sherwani ROLE OF SALES AND MARKETING IN ... - Oulu

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3.1 Macro Environment Component
The macro-level environment component consists of uncontrollable external forces that
affect how a business might operate. These external and uncontrollable factors influence
an organization's decision making, and affect its performance and strategies. They are
largely considered out of the control of the business, and often require changes in
operating, management, production, and even marketing. These factors include the
economic factors, demographics, social conditions, technological changes, natural forces
and government regulations (Eckersley, 1992). Generally, businesses have little to no
control over their macro environment. They can, however, prepare for the unexpected by
conducting regular analyses of the macro environment factors connected to them, and
revise their strategies accordingly.
These macro-level factors especially government regulations are of great influence to
business around the world. This thesis work is focusing mainly on Finnish energy
market which comes under the rules and regulations of European Union. This regulation
body is pretty much consistent compared to some emerging economies. For example, the
exchange price of electricity is determined in terms of supply and demand. The price
level in Finland is determined on Nordic electricity Nord pool (LUT Report, 2011).
Although the business laws are well regulated and practiced yet they can be influenced
and even transformed by other two layers. In modern age, governments are really
concerned about socio-economic issues related to climate change, energy security, and
economic and job growth. Due to these concerns, researchers (Borenstein & Bushnell,
2000) argue that there is a need of reregulation in electricity transmission and
distribution industry. In order to meet these goals, there is a certain attention given to
new trends in energy market which would cover the middle component.
3.2 Middle Component
The middle component as shown in figure 3 consists of business trends which equally
effect macro and micro environment. This component is developed through different and
innovative business practices within specific industry. For energy business, there are
certain changes from traditional model (figure 4) and modern model (Figure 5) for
electricity business.