Explain the process of environmental assessment. What are the major international variables to consider in the scanning process? Discuss the levels of environmental monitoring that should be conducted. How well do you think managers conduct environmental assessment?

1. Environmental assessment: the

process of information gathering/forecasting relevant trends, competitive actions, and circumstances that will affect operations in geographic areas of potential interest is known as environmental assessment.

2. The Major international variables to consider when conducting an environmental assessment are

political instability; currency instability; nationalism; degrees of international competition.

a. Political instability is the potential for sudden and significant change in the leadership, policies, or condition of a country.

b. A currency crisis is brought on by a sharp decline in the value of a country's currency. This decline in value, in turn, negatively affects an economy by creating instabilities in exchange rates, meaning one unit of a certain currency no longer buys as much as it used to in another currency.

c. Nationalism is the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.

d. International competition is the services or products provided by competing companies that serve international customers.

3. Levels of environmental monitoring that should be conducted are multinational; regional; country

4. It depends on the size of the firm; small firms are not likely to conduct a detailed analysis, but can purchase relevant information concerning market potential, political risk, and competitive positioning.