Editing Situation analysis (section)

=== Climate ===
To fully understand the business climate and environment, many factors that can affect the business must be researched and understood. An analysis on the climate is also known as [[PEST analysis]]. The types of climate/environment firms have to analyse are:
* Political and regulatory environment: An analysis of how actively the government regulates the market with their policies and how it would affect the [[production (economics)|production]], [[distribution (business)|distribution]] and [[Sales|sale]] of the [[goods and services]].
* Economic Environment: An analysis of trends regarding [[macroeconomics]], such as [[exchange rates]] and [[inflation rate]], can prove to influence businesses.<ref name=sitan />
* Social/cultural environment: An analysis interpreting the trends of society,<ref name=sitan /> which includes the study of [[demographics]], [[education]], [[culture]] etc.
* Technological analysis: An analysis of technology helps improve on old routines and suggest new methods for being cost efficient. To stay competitive and gain an advantage over competitors, businesses must sufficiently understand technological advances.<ref>{{cite web|title=PEST Analysis|url=http://www.netmba.com/strategy/pest/|publisher=NetMBA Business Knowledge Centre|accessdate=March 28, 2012}}</ref>