The economic, political, social, cultural and institutional conditions that impact on a business.

The external system of people, procedures, and machines organized to supply a given set of products and services to its customers and internal users.

Business environment characteristics include business size, competition, area of industry, and access to technical resources. For example, an enterprise may not have practical access to information proprietary to a competitor, or known in specialist or academic circles.

Syn: operating environment.

all external influences from the near (e.g. suppliers, competitors) and far (e.g. social, economic) environments.