THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT OF BUSINESS

Industry Analysis

This is a team assignment involving the analysis of an industry and a firm within that industry.  Select an industry that is of interest to your team.   Each industry may only be selected by one team, and industries will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Analysis

1.  Briefly describe the industry that you have selected.  This should include a discussion of the product or service dealt with in the industry, a definition of the market involved, and any trends (technological, social, etc.) that may be affecting the industry.

2.  How do macroeconomic forces affect this industry?  Discuss where you think the national and international macroeconomies are heading and how this will affect your industry.

3.  Analyze your industry based on the Five Forces framework.

4.  Choose any one firm in your industry.  Analyze the position of your firm in the industry compared to its competitors, including any advantages and disadvantages that it might have.  Based on this analysis and the analysis of the industry in (1) - (3), what do you think are the firm's prospects in both the short-term and the long-term?

Output

Your output should be in the form of a report dealing with the items above.  Please submit this report by Sunday, May 13.