Strategic Management and Sustainability - Essay Example

specifically. Political: Apple operates across multiple geographies, which imply that the organization is subject to political influence of multiple countries. When an organization operates in a particular nation, it is bound by the country’s predefined business policies. It has been found that in case of Apple, a majority of product sales had originated from countries outside the U.S. market particularly after the recession of 2008 (Apple, 2013). In order to utilize opportunities outside U.S., Apple has steadily spread its manufacturing operations in countries like, Korea, Czech Republic, Ireland and Cork.

Diplomatic political relations of U.S. government with the governments in other countries benefits Apple’s operation in dissimilar regions (Hassan, 2014). Tax regulations are also an important determinant of profitability. For instance, introduction of taxes by the Chinese government against foreign companies had significant impact on profitability of the organization. Similarly, the U.K. government had raised VAT by 20%, which is expected to lower consumer spending on luxury items. So, a reduction in purchase of Apple products is likely (BBC News Business, 2011).

Economic: There are mainly three important parameters that impact business prospects of Apple, namely inflation, value of currency and recessionary trends. The operations of Apple are subject to currency and exchange rate risks as foreign exchange market remains volatile after recession. One of the major trends since recession of 2008 was contraction in the demand for expensive electronic gadgets in countries of European Union like, Greece, Portugal and Italy (Berglof, E., 2011). However, the impact of recession on emerging countries has been lesser to an extent.

It has been observed that rising rate of GDP and per capita income in the emerging countries like, Brazil, India and China, has been