External Environment There are several components to the external environment of a business. These include the political/legal/regulatory environment, the economic environment, the competitive environment, external demand drivers and the technological environment (Anderson, 2013)
Five Forces Porter's five forces of competition act as a means to understand a firm's pricing power. The five forces are supplier power, buyer power, intensity of rivalry, threat of substitution and threat of new entrants (Porter, 2008)
Thus, by a comparison of strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats with those of the competitors, effective strategies and tactics can be developed to combat competition. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors of a firm, in contrast with the opportunities and threats, which are external factors (Hammer & Champy, 1993)
To alleviate some of the financial stresses associated with uncompensated care, the state of Florida in 1991 passed legislation permitting local taxing districts to hold referenda for approval of tax levies to finance health care for the poor, uninsured population. As a result, "In the past ten years, JMH has grown and improved financially and is a leader in treating eye disorders and pediatric patients" (Jackson et al
xi). With a population of 2,363,600 (Podunk, 2004), this signifies a tremendous amount of uninsured citizens in the county