wrongdoing, the result of which can be complete business failure. Currently, trading
environments have very sensitive climates and increasingly corporations are now feeling
their way through the issue of corporate and social responsibility.Political
From a political perspective, the online environment raises many issues, for instance
borderless trading: how are import duties and taxes applied and controlled and the
interest of individual nations maintained when trading in an environment where there
is no central control able to authorise or establish globally applicable laws? Another
issue is how the Internet might affect the democratic process per se. Shaw (2002), consid-
ers how ‘the Internet will turn political campaigns upside down’. Political debates also
focus on the extent to which the accessibility of information impacts on levels of indi-
vidual and organisational privacy.Legal
The macro-environment consists of bodies of laws that affect what organisations can do
and provide frameworks of rules which are enforceable. However, as far as the online
environment is concerned there is no international legislation system. Even within the
USA where Internet usage is advanced compared to many other parts of the world, legal
controls are limited. Central issues from a B2B perspective include: intellectual property
rights, taxation and data protection (see Chapter 3 for further discussion of the macro-
environment and legal issues).Social
The social environment is concerned with people’s needs and wants (Finlay, 2000). From
a digital marketing planning perspective, the cultural values of the society that an organi-
sation wishes to trade with are of critical importance. Societies are constantly evolving; in
economically well-developed nations, the quality of lifehas become a priority. Attitudes to
work and leisure are evolving towards creating the work/life balance. Digital technology
has had a wide impact on the social environment; the Internet has the potential to accen-
tuate the differences within a single nation and between nations. There has been much
discussion globally about Information havesand have nots, again primarily in B2C markets.
The impact of organisational culture is generally considered within the literature as part
of an internal analysis (see Internal analysis later in this section).Technological
The major environmental influence of technology in the last decade has been the online
trading arena created by the computer networks that form the Internet. This global trad-
ing environment has the impact of creating opportunities for organisations of all sizes to
operate as multinational enterprises. Sambharya et al. (2005) state that innovative
Internet and web-based technologies have the potential to affect the way businesses
operate: ‘The “new” rules include restructuring to foster a “glocal” outlook, nimbleness,
empowerment of local managers / employees and the management of knowledge’,
thereby suggesting that technological changes not only impact at the macro-environ-
mental level of analysis but also at the micro and internal level. For instance, trading
becomes borderless, competition is intensified, procurement and production globalised,
operations streamlined and made more cost effective, and lead times are reduced.CHAPTER 11· BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING