Economics for Managers
November 13, 2021Strategic Information Systems For Business And Enterprise
November 13, 2021
Introduction
Both internal and external environment changes in a nation can affect the marketing functions on a worldwide basis. But, it wouldn’t be wrong to mention that there is a significant impact of the macro-environment on the marketing activities going on in a nation. For better understanding, the real-world scenario of macro environment changes in Malaysia and their resultant effects on various marketing mixes, like- product development, pricing strategies, promotional activities and distribution methods in the case of various industries have been taken into account here (Coccia, 2015). The macro-environment changes in Malaysia that have been taken place especially in between the operational years of 1995 to that of 2015 are the topic of discussion. How these crucial changes in the macro-environment can affect the numerous marketing activities? – It covers a major section of the report.
Macro Environment Changes In Malaysia In Between 1995-2015
From 1995 to 2015, it has been seen that in Malaysia, the long-established multi-party democracy is still in progress. A greater degree of stability is the main advantage here that affects the marketing activities positively within Malaysia and more investors are showing interest in investing here. It is possible because of the regime of the Barisan Nasional Party for over twenty-five years (Goel, 2016). Corruption is not at all an issue here due to which it is not considered as a barrier for international business and foreign companies anymore. The decreasing nature of corruption towards absolute diminish is confirmed by the Corruption Perceptions Index of the country by Transparency International and Malaysia comes at the 47th position and quite a bit of progress here can be perceived contrasting with its previous ranking.
While considering the changes of the macro environment in terms of socio-cultural factors, major demographic changes have occurred when the Malaysian population comes to the surface. In these twenty years, a sharp increase in the population of Chinese people can be observed with a total of 30% of the entire populace. However, the main group in Malaysia is the Malay people constituting 60% of the population and the other 10% are Indian. With the increasing population’s mix during these twenty years, the government has succeeded in creating a very rich as well as a highly vibrant culture and now Malaysia is an exemplary nation with utmost racial harmony. It is because, by comparing the situation before twenty years and that of the social condition now it can be stated that different populations now live peacefully for years in Malaysia (Hashim et al.,2013). Most of the people belong to the Islamic religion and therefore all the organizations have kind of shifted towards the socio-cultural values of Muslims but they also comply with the other groups who practise different other religions. The considerable macro environment changes based on the cultural differences created in these twenty years of time have affected the business practices along with product development that suit the majority proportion of the populace’s social and cultural values.
While considering the technological macro-environment, between 1995-2015, a major advancements in the sector of infrastructure, multimedia as well as communications can be seen. However, the country is still on its way to upgrading its technological sectors so that illustrious Malaysian companies can compete in the global markets. The government’s initiation in the form of Multimedia Super Corridor started in 1996 which is popularly known as MSC is the perfect example of technological advancement, under which the technological land was stretched from Kuala Lumpur’s central business territory to that of the out-of-town region towards the International Airport. This initiative has come up with hosting above 360 multinationals that include many of the Malaysian companies and various foreign-owned companies. All of them have participated in the technological advancement related to multimedia as well as communications products and services (Hwa & Malaysia, 2012). Therefore, the top ICT organizations all over the world got attracted within this growth year so that they could expand their international business. The new now known as Cyberjaya is another example including the creation of smart schools with a greater investment towards training and education to mitigate the issue of low workforce density (Marak & Chaipoopirutana, 2015). Therefore, from 1995-2015, the country has significantly transformed itself by listing it in the position of top three destinations across the globe suitable for effective business support services as well as outsourcing in terms of technological progress.
A great degree of negative externalities in the case of environmental perspective is the negative point that has been occurred during this time span. With the rapid development, Malaysia has forgotten to consider the higher environmental cost here. UN mentioned that after the year 2000, Malaysia has lost around 0.65% forest area each year which is approximately 140,000 hectares. So, in contrast with other tropical nations, the deforestation rate was quite higher during this period. Most of the land that was covered in forests has been used for the production of palm oil that has become the core source of food processing as well as biofuel source (Salahudin, Abdullah & Newaz, 2013). Many of the critics have been criticising these environmental impacts and the devastating impacts of this environmental change on the rare wildlife of Malaysia. Complete disregard of the Malaysian government towards the environmental issues, which they think of as western hypocrisy has elevated the impacts to the next level (Singh et al., 2013).
Impacts of the Changes on the Marketing Activities
Due to the stable political environment in Malaysia, promotional activities and distribution strategies get positively affected since 1995. However, due to the stable government and its legal policies and regulations, more and more competitors thought about entering into the market and because of this, competition became more and more, it affected the pricing strategies of the companies (Hwa & Malaysia, 2012). For the reason that they couldn’t establish a monopoly market in Malaysia, they shifted towards more flexible pricing of the products and services during 2010-15 otherwise the customers would have switched their brands. The market revolved around the low price strategy as there are lower-middle-class people living in Malaysia than that of other income groups. Various companies found conflicting issues of socio-cultural values as the Islamic population is way higher than that of other populations. So, they had to consider the values of Muslims, like- dwelling on Halal foods when it is meat with the fear that a large segmented population would probably go mad (Taherkhani et al., 2012). With the rising issue of environmental deterioration, most of the organizations had to implement green marketing and for this, they had to add more cost in their marketing activities. Due to the growing nature of industrial development, the government found that it would be good to change some of the flexible legal factors, like- interest rates, government regulations about import and export as well as currency value changes in which case the nation is dependent on more than 27 nations’ currency exchange policies (Hwa & Malaysia, 2012). With this, the distribution strategies got severely toppled and there is a chance of imminent inflation that can hamper the marketing activities related to the marketing mix of product and companies’ perceptions towards low pricing as well as value for money approaches.
Conclusion
Moreover, by the end of 2008, the nation understood the importance of sustainable business practices as per the environmental, political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors. The time span of 1995 to that of 2015 is considered as the most progressive and profitable operational year for Malaysia, looking at the business, growth, expansion, revenue generation and economically viable perspective (Coccia, 2015). However, the key people of the government always analyze the positive and negative impacts so that the foreign companies will not lose interest in investing in the country. The new CSR policy implemented by the nation has given a new direction when it comes to the promotion marketing mix and it is one of the most exemplary steps which the political macro environment has put into business practice.
References
Ab Talib, M.S., Hamid, A.B.A., Zulfakar, M.H. and Jeeva, A.S., 2014. Halal logistics PEST analysis: the Malaysia perspectives. Asian Social Science, 10(14), p.119.
Coccia, M., 2015. Technology & environment: some possible damaging effects of technological change in advanced and opulent societies. UNU-MERIT Working Papers, (2014-089).
Goel, A., 2016. Developing E-Commerce Supply Chain Capabilities for an FMCG Manufacturer (Doctoral dissertation).
Hashim, A.H.A., Hassan, W.H., Islam, S., Saeed, R.A., Hasan, M.K., Daoud, J.I. and Khalifa, O.O., 2013. An enhanced macro mobility management scheme in NEMO environment to achieve seamless handoff. World Applied Sciences Journal, 21, pp.35-39.
Hwa, T.B. and Malaysia, B.N., 2012. External risks and macro-financial linkages in the ASEAN-5 Economies. Bank Negara Malaysia Working Paper.
Kumar, N., Martinez Lucio, M. and Rose, R.C., 2013. Workplace industrial relations in a developing environment: barriers to renewal within unions in Malaysia. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 51(1), pp.22-44.
Marak, D.R. and Chaipoopirutana, S., 2015. The impact of micro and macro environment on profitability of technology companies in Thailand.
Olaniyi, A.O., Abdullah, A.M., Ramli, M.F. and Alias, M.S., 2012. Assessment of drivers of coastal land use change in Malaysia. Ocean & coastal management, 67, pp.113-123.
Razak, M.I.M., Ahmad, I., Bujang, I., Talib, A.H. and Ibrahim, Z., 2013. Economics of air pollution in Malaysia. Int J HumanitSocSci, 3(13), pp.173-177.
Salahudin, S.N., Abdullah, M.M. and Newaz, N.A., 2013. Emissions: sources, policies and development in Malaysia. International Journal of Education and Research, 1(7), pp.1-12.
Singh, P.K.H., Thuraisingam, T., Nair, V. and David, M.K., 2013. The research imperative in the evolving environment of public universities in Malaysia. SEARCH: The Journal of the South East Asia Research centre for Communication and the Humanities, 5(1), pp.1-18.
Taherkhani, R., Saleh, A.L., Nekooie, M.A. and Mansur, S.A., 2012. External factors influencing on industrial building system (IBS) in Malaysia. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Policy, 1(2), p.66.
