Running head: RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POST 1
Response to Discussion Post
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Institution Affiliation
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RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POST 2
Internal Environment
The internal environment of a company consists of different ingredients of its inner-
workings such as customer management, including value proposition, market strategy, and the
competitiveness of the company (Aithal, 2016, p. 2). The cost structure is also an internal
environment ingredient because it shows the cost advantage. The competitive advantage also
shows how efficient a company can fill the gap of its rivals.
Customer Value Propositions
It is true with the current effect of Covid-19, brand personality impacts customer value
propositions through social media platforms since everybody is moving online due to the
infectious rates of the virus and government directives. This means a company's ability to change
to online working and evaluation put its internal environment on customer management to test.
This is because brand personality is an effective way to capture the user's perceptions, which
further reflects the user's social identities that affect their preferences. In other words, the brand
personality of companies at this time demonstrates the brand equity of a company, which reflects
its competitiveness in the market. It is true user and employee imagery, and official
communications data sources can be used to measure customer value proposition. The data
source from user imagery, for instance, measures customer value proposition by associating the
human characteristics with the users of a given product such as Apple (Hu et al., 2019, p. 903).
This means the traits of the user and brand personality are bidirectional, which further implies
that users can be attracted to a brand that aligns with their desired or actual identity.
The Fourth Factor
RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POST 3
It is true environmental impacts of a company have shown an impressive online presence
and reflects the integrity of the company's internal environment. This is because it pertains to
how a company functions and its role in reducing environmental impacts. Environmental
concerns such as waste control relate to the integrity of a company's internal environment
because it affects perceptions that could influence customer value proposition (Alwi, Ali, and
Nguyen, 2017, 2). You have discussed the example of Starbuck's strategy of achieving its 2020
sustainability goals, which has been challenged by the current pandemic, which further implies
that it is difficult for Starbucks to assure any long-term value creation consistent with its
functioning.
Strategic Thinking
It is true the current Covid-19 environment reflects the internal environment since it
reflects the strategic thinking of a company. This is because the functioning of most businesses
has changed, and they require rethinking their strategic plans to accommodate the changes and
make tradeoffs that reduce costs. Having discussed that the online presence and diversification is
vital in the current environment, companies should adopt changes that focus on making profits
rather than losses. This means the strategic plan should focus on the variability of the operations
because the homeworking can influence employees to cyberattacks that might cause losses.
Decision Model
I agree that in the Covid-19 business environment, feedback analysis is the current
decision model and helps in understanding the internal situation of a company. This is because
traditional decision models no longer apply since online presence is what is assisting companies
in surviving during this pandemic. Additionally, the feedback analysis will show whether a
RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POST 4
company aligns with its strategic plan. Moreover, consistent feedback analysis from consumers
and employees by a company will help it survive because it will shape its functioning to meet
consumers' and employees' perceptions. Having discussed your ending thoughts, one question
that can arise to establish the internal environment of a company includes how the business
model aligns with the strategic plan. However, the Covid-19 environment challenges this
question because employees are working at home, and feedback analysis is the only tool left to
answer the questions.
References
Aithal, P. S. (2016). Study on ABCD analysis technique for business models, business strategies,
operating concepts & business systems. International Journal in Management and Social
Science, 4(1).
RESPONSE TO DISCUSSION POST 5
Alwi, S. F. S., Ali, S. M., & Nguyen, B. (2017). The importance of ethics in branding: mediating
effects of ethical branding on company reputation and brand loyalty. Business Ethics
Quarterly, 27(3), 393-422.
Hu, Y., Xu, A., Hong, Y., Gal, D., Sinha, V., & Akkiraju, R. (2019). Generating Business
Intelligence Through Social Media Analytics: Measuring Brand Personality with
consumer-, Employee-, and Firm-Geneerated Content. Journal of Management
Information Systems, 893-930.
