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 Macro-  environment

 Micro-  environment  (digital  marketplace)

Social

The organisation

Legal, ethical and taxation

Its customers

Economic

Its suppliers

Political

Its competitors

Technological

Intermediaries

Competitive

The public at large

Table 4.1

Factors in the  macro‑   and  micro‑  environment of an organisation

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Chapter 4  E‑environment

to constantly scan the environment and assess which changes are relevant to their sphere 

of influence. Changes in social culture and particularly pop culture tend to be very rapid. 

Introduction of new technologies and changes in their popularity tend to be frequent, too. 

Governmental and legal changes tend to happen over longer timescales but new laws can be 

introduced relatively fast. The trick for managers is to identify those factors that are critical 

to competitiveness and service delivery and monitor these. The technological and legal fac-

tors are most important to managing e-commerce, so we focus on these.

Since the law is one of the most important issues for the e-commerce manager to address, 

the six most important legal issues for managers are introduced in Table 4.2. Each of these 

is covered in more detail later in the chapter. Organisations that either do not monitor these 

environmental factors or do not respond to them adequately will not remain competitive 

and may fail. The process of monitoring the environment is usually referred to as