Stakeholder Analysis Assignment: Impact of Internal & External Stakeholders at Amazon

Question

Task:

Context:
Business stakeholder analysis is a technique for identifying stakeholders and analyzing their roles. The aim of the analysis is to map out the stakeholders’ level of influence and degree of interest with regards to the business. Stakeholder analysis can also be used to assess the relationships between different stakeholders and the issues they care about most.

Internal stakeholders are individuals or groups who are directly involved in the business, such as owners, board members, managers, employees, and investors. External stakeholders are indirectly influenced by the business activities, like customers, suppliers, competitors, society and government.

By understanding both perspectives, the business can engage and enhance communication with relevant stakeholders, reduce or prevent risks, identify business opportunities, improve internal stakeholders’ commitment in the business and the reputation of the business amongst external stakeholders.

Instructions:
In this stakeholder analysis assignment, you will examine a business in an industry that you have either previously worked in or would like to in the future.

Presenting a business example and contributing to the discussion forum, you will:

• dentify and analyze functional areas in the business
• identify and analyze the internal and external stakeholders
• compare two industries with each other
• create a stakeholder matrix
• discuss chosen stakeholders and industries in the context of relevant theories and frameworks

Answer

Executive Summary

• The analysis done in this stakeholder analysis assignment signifies that the interest of employees is improving in the warehouse working condition at Amazon
• The interest of employees increasing wages at Woolworths
• Influence of Board of Directors is high 
• Main external stakeholders of Amazon are Government and Customers
• Main internal stakeholders of Employees and Board of directors
• Power/interest matrix, Pestle and Stakeholder Mapping used as theories and frameworks

1. Introduction and background information on Amazon

The implications of proper stakeholder analysis are critical for the prospect of business (Noto & Noto, 2019). The implications of proper stakeholder contribution are important for the productivity of the organisation (Avgeropoulos, 2015). Amazon is one of the leading e-commerce retail chains. Amazon was founded in 1994. The annual revenue of Amazon is $280 million (Forbes, 2020). The number of employees at Amazon is 1000 000. The services portfolio of Amazon includes Amazon Alexa, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web services.

2. Main body

2.1 Identify functional areas

The functional areas in Amazon are identified as follows:

Amazon Web services department

Amazon is one of the leading e-commerce retail companies and is known for its cloud-based services. The AWS is one of the latest cloud-based database solutions that has been propelling in the market. The organisation has developed a dedicated functional segment for these services and this functional area is responsible for managing the technical issues in the e-commerce services. Hence, it can be analysed that Amazon is focused on enhancing e-commerce services by integrating a dedicated technical department. It has been supported by the fact that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon has increased its employment rate of IT professional by 45% to support AWS (Soper, 2020).

Marketing

The aspects of targeting the proper audience through their promotional campaign are essential for the survival of e-commerce services. The prevalence of identifying such a target audience is only accomplished through an effective marketing department as the marketing professionals identify the appropriate target audience by using consumer profiling. The marketing department at Amazon has made use of data-driven consumer profiling techniques for observing the detailed customer purchase trends. Thus, it implies the significance of market department as a functional area in Amazon.

Finance

The significance of the finance department as a functional area is high. It is because the number of online transactions, shipment charges and stock inventory purchases are numerous and requires specialized accounting skills to accommodate such a complicated task. The prevalence of such efficacies in the finance department has led to a surge in annual revenue. It has been supported by the fact that annual revenue of Amazon has increased to $280.5 billion in 2019 (Forbes, 2020). It has been identified that the implementation of the proper accounting methodologies is significant in terms of improving the financial prospect of the organisation. 

Human resource

One of the major functional areas at Amazon is the human resource department. It is because Amazon employs more than 100,000 workers and requires high employee engagement for delivering on the prospects of effective productivity (Kelly, 2020). The requirements of such accord are only met if the organisation instantiates on the development of effective human resource department and signifies its importance as a functional department. It has evidenced by the fact that Jeff Bezos has applauded the effort of the HR team to keep its employee motivated during the adversities of COVID-19 and economic recession. 

2.2 Identify internal and external stakeholders and their roles

The pestle has been implemented to identify the internal and external stakeholder at Amazon. The following parameters are as follows:

Political

The recent changes involving the introduction of Five prime ministers in Canberra has resulted in the political instability in Australia (Financial Times, 2020). This, in turn, has adversely impacted the operations at Amazon as the government influence that helped in the reduction of corporate taxes. It has been evidenced by the fact that the changing governmental influence has forced Amazon to build diverse policies for mitigating social and political issues. Thus, it can be analysed that government is one of the major external stakeholders.

Economical

The inflation rate in Australia has decreased from 1.91 to 1.67 in 2019 (Macrotrends, 2020). This, in turn, has resulted in an increase of good value and the board of directors at Amazon have transcended on the increase of good prices. It has positively impacted the financial growth of the Amazon. It has been evidenced by the fact that the annual turnover of Amazon has increased by 37.6 % in 2019 (Forbes, 2020). Hence, it can be analysed that the Board of directors are a key internal stakeholder of Amazon and their role is responsible for deciding the pricing strategy of the product.

Social

The consumer behaviour trends in e-commerce purchases have surged by 31% in 2020 (Palmer, 2020). It has incurred on a positive impact on Amazon as its e-commerce business has contributed to its annual turnover significantly. It has been supported by the fact that the e-commerce sales of Amazon have increased by 18% in 2019 (Droesch, 2020). On top of that, the elevated sales of Amazon grocery are dependent on the increased customer loyalty which figures to +35 pts. Thus, it can be analysed that the customers are a major external stakeholder for Amazon as the e-commerce sales of Amazon are heavily dependent on customer purchase behaviour.

Technological

The implementation of the VR and AI technology within the retail stores in the recent technological innovation that has transformed the retail services. Amazon has been leading in the segment of VR technology innovation as the organisation has introduced the Amazon Go store which is fully automated with VR and AI kiosk and pay screens. It has been evidenced by the fact that the R&D team at Amazon has been the core contributors to the development of the AmazonGo store (Schlosser, 2020). Hence, it can be analysed that the R&D team are the critical stakeholders for Amazon as the team roles have contributed to the growth of the company as a technical giant.

Legal

The Human Rights violation in Australia has increased within the organisations significantly. Thus, it has created a challenge for Amazon to meet the employee's demand for appropriate working condition and has caused a problem for Amazon to revise the existing employment contracts. It has been supported by the fact that most of the employees are suffering from injuries due to the improper working conditions in Amazon warehouses (Sainato, 2020). Thus, it can be analysed that the employees are quite aware of their roles of being vocal about the human rights violation and pose as the significant external stakeholder for the organisation

Environmental

The Climate Change Act has forecasted the reduction in the carbon footprint by 35% in 2020 (Sutto et al., 2020). Amazon has accounted for the reduction of the carbon footprint by 15% and has contributed to the objectives of the Climate Change Act significantly. The organisation has worked with several NGO's to improve the recycling process, integrate CSR activities and decrease the carbon footprint of the product lifecycle. It has been evidenced by the fact that Amazon has teamed up with Sol's ARC, which is a leading NGO, to implement their plans in CSR activities. Hence, it can be implied that the NGO are a major external stakeholder of Amazon and serves the roles of collaborating with their CSR initiatives.

Table: Identification of stakeholders by PESTLE

(Source: Learner)

2.3 Identify the nature and degree of main stakeholders' interests and implications of conflicting interests

The main interest for stakeholder group, Board of Directors is to incur on the generation of the elevated amount of profit. The degree of interest is significantly high. It is because the Board of Directors has developed several e-commerce server packages for Amazon Web Service (AWS) and has increased the good prices, due to a fall in inflation rate to reflect on increased sales. It has been supported by the fact that the eCommerce sales at Amazon has increased by 200% due to the rise in the product prices and has contributed to the annual profit growth by 12% (Santos, 2019). Thus, it can be analysed that the interest of the Board of Directors as a stakeholder is financial in nature. On the other hand, the main interests of the customers. The main interest of the customers is to decrease their expenses in terms of purchasing retail products. The extent of such interest is quite high. It has been supported by the fact that more than 50% of the e-commerce consumers aspire for higher retail discounts (Nisar & Prabhakar, 2017). Hence, it can be analysed that the conflict of interest between the two stakeholders is significant as the Board of Directors incline to the purpose of generating profit through elevated product pricing whereas the customers aspire for the reduction in the product pricing through the increased availability of discounts. The implications of such conflicting interests harm the business as it leads to the change in customer loyalty.

The main interest of the Board of Directors is to decrease the investment by avoiding the improvement in the working conditions. It has been supported by the fact that Amazon has been using the touting the increased employee wages, in an effort to avert the working condition issues of its warehouses (Sainato, 2020). On the contrary, the main interest of the employees is to improve their working condition. It has been evidenced by the fact that the workers at Amazon warehouse have organized a strike on Prime Day to protest about the deteriorating working conditions (Dziez, 2019). Hence, it can be analysed that the conflict of interest between the two stakeholders is huge as the Board of Directors are pressing on the efforts to reduce investment at the cost of improved working conditions whereas the employee is focused on improving the working condition. The implication of such conflicting interests is dangerous as the ensuing issues might influence the employees to leave the jobs and contribute to the adversities of low employee turnover rates. 

2.4 Identify the level of main stakeholders’ influence

Figure: Influence/Importance matrix framework

(Source: Learner)

The level of the stakeholder influence is decided by the importance/ influence matrix. The "high importance high" is associated with the Board of Directors. It is because they have the clearance to influence the pricing policies that would increase the profit margin. Hence, it is analysed that their priority is paramount and their influence on the business decision is significant. The high importance, low influence" quadrant is occupied by the employees. It is because their presence is important, being the core workforce of the organisation even though their influence is quite low due to their reduced negotiating position. It has been supported by the fact that despite several protests, the employees have not been influential in pressuring the Board of Directors to change the working conditions at Amazon warehouses.

2.5 Create a stakeholder matrix

Figure: Power/Interest Matrix

(Source: Learner)

In the promoters quadrant, the Board of Directors has been positioned. It is because they are the highest authority of the organisation and has the power to influence the product pricing strategies. On top of that, the Board of Directors has high interest in improving the annual revenue and reducing investment in working conditions. The stakeholder group, employees have been positioned in the latent quadrant. It is because the employees have a high interest in the improvement in the working conditions but have a low level of authority or power to enforce their interests. In the latent quadrant, customers have been positioned as the low switching cost provide these stakeholders with high power of changing customer loyalty due to high prices.

2.6 In the discussion forum, choose an example from your peers and compare the industry your business operates in with their industry, identify the main points of stakeholder dissimilarities and analyse the differences in stakeholder interests and influences

Table: Stakeholder mapping framework

(Source: Learner)

Amazon operates in the retail e-commerce industry whereas Woolworth operates in the supermarket industry. The business services between the two organisation are extremely different as Amazon focuses on the provision of exemplary online services whereas the Woolworths is focused on the delivery of in-store shopping experience. From the Stakeholder mapping framework, it is understood that the interest of the employees at Amazon is quite different than the ones at Woolworths. It is because the employees at Amazon are interested in the improvement of the working conditions whereas the employees at Woolworths have been focused on the rise of their wages. It has been supported by the fact that the employees are staging a protest for promoting their interest in the improvement in the warehouse working condition (Soper, 2019). Thus, it can be analysed that the poor safety standards and low remuneration has been the factor for causing such differences among the interest. The employees, as a stakeholder group has a higher influence than their counterparts at Woolworths as they have higher negotiation positioning. The stakeholder's group of customers has varied interest when it comes to asserting their interest. The main interest of the customers at Amazon is to get discounted values over the product pricing. On the other hand, the main interest for the customers at Woolworths is inclined to the improvement of the shopping experience. It has been supported by the fact that more than 50% of the customers are attracted by discounted prices (Arce-Urriza et al., 2017). Hence, it can be analysed that the competitors in the e-commerce industry are offering higher discounted prices and have played an influential role in imparting differences to the stakeholder's interest. The influence of the customer stakeholder group at Amazon has a higher influence than the one's at Woolworths as the former has a lower switching cost.

From the Stakeholder mapping framework, it is understood that the Board of Directors at Amazon and Woolworths have slight differences in their interests. It is because this stakeholder group at Amazon is more focused on generating higher profits and on the other hand, the Board of Directors at Woolworths is inclined to the purpose of evolving the CSR programmes. Thus, it can be analysed that the Board Of Directors at Amazon is driven by profitable intentions and the Board Of Directors at Woolworths is influenced by the contribution to society through their leadership style.

3. Conclusion
The report has been exemplary in identifying the impact of stakeholders at Amazon. From the report, it can be concluded that the board of directors of high influence and interest in the organisation whereas the employees have less power as they have not been able to improve their interest of improving the working conditions. The report has made use of the power interest matrix and stakeholder mapping framework as a wider concept and framework of stakeholder theory. From the analysis, it has been identified that the customers of Amazon have a higher influence than the customers at Woolworths.

Reference List
Arce-Urriza, M., Cebollada, J., & Tarira, M. F. (2017). The effect of price promotions on consumer shopping behaviour across online and offline channels: differences between frequent and non-frequent shoppers. Information Systems and e-Business Management, 15(1), 69-87.

Avgeropoulos, S. (2015). Stakeholder analysis. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-2.

Droesch, B. (2020). Amazon's worldwide sales will rise 20.2% this year as reliance on e-commerce grows. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-global-ecommerce-sales-will-reach-416-billion-in-2020-2020-7?IR=T

Dziez, J. (2019). Amazon warehouse workers strike to protest inhumane conditions. (2019). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20696154/amazon-prime-day-2019-strike-warehouse-workers-inhumane-conditions-the-rate-productivity

Forbes.com. (2020). Amazon Stock Is At An All-Time High, But Will It Grow Any More?. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/07/13/amazon-stock-is-at-an-all-time-high-but-will-it-grow-any-more/?sh=7769c54259ef

forbes.com. (2020). Does Amazon’s Stock Have More Room To Grow?. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/02/06/does-amazons-stock-have-more-room-to-grow/?sh=7f4a929549ab

ft.com. (2020). Australia's global clout dented by political instability. (2018). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.ft.com/content/c25171d2-f76b-11e8-af46-2022a0b02a6c

Kelly, M. (2020). Amazon wants to hire 100,000 new workers to meet coronavirus demand. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/16/21182411/amazon-hires-employees-warehouse-delivery-pay-raise-coronavirus

Macrotrends.net. (2020). Australia Inflation Rate 1960-2020. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AUS/australia/inflation-rate-cpi

Nisar, T. M., & Prabhakar, G. (2017). What factors determine e-satisfaction and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing?. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 39, 135-144.

Noto, G., & Noto, L. (2019). Local strategic planning and stakeholder analysis: Suggesting a dynamic performance management approach. Stakeholder analysis assignment Public Organization Review, 19(3), 293-310.

Palmer, A. (2020). Coronavirus pandemic turbocharges online sales, which were up more than 31% in just three months (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/18/e-commerce-sales-grew-more-than-30percent-between-q1-and-q2.html

Sainato, M. (2020). 'I'm not a robot': Amazon workers condemn unsafe, gruelling conditions at the warehouse. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/05/amazon-workers-protest-unsafe-grueling-conditions-warehouse

Santos, D. (2019). Amazon’s stock price evolution and e-commerce sales expansion: an analysis using state-space models.

Schlosser, K. (2020). Inside ‘Amazon Go Grocery’: Tech giant opens first full-sized store without cashiers or checkout lines. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-goes-bigger-first-amazon-go-grocery-new-seattle-store-using-cashierless-technology/

Soper, S. (2020). Bloomberg - Are you a robot?. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/amazon-workers-plan-prime-day-strike-despite-15-an-hour-pledge

Soper, T. (2020). Amazon hires 248,500 people in Q3 as Jeff Bezos challenges large employers to raise the minimum wage. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazons-hires-248500-people-q3-jeff-bezos-challenges-large-employers-raise-minimum-wage/#:~:text=keeps%20adding%20up-,Amazon%20hires%20248%2C500%20people% 20in%20Q3%20as%20Jeff%20Bezos,employers%20to%20raise%20minimum%20wage&text=It%20has%20already %20hired%20another,400%2C000%20positions%20in%202020%20alone.

Sutton, B., Mulvenna, V., Voronoff, D., & Humphrys, T. (2020). Acting on climate change and health in Victoria. Medical Journal of Australia, 212(8), 345-346.

Appendix 1: Posts
Topic 3: Internal Stakeholders
The internal stakeholders of Amazon Inc. consist of the employees, CEO, managers and leaders of the company.

Employee: It is apparent that since the company has become the largest company in the online retail market, therefore, employee satisfaction is given the highest regard by the company leaders. Through a strong human resource management and well-defined corporate social responsibility by the company socials, the employee satisfaction and well-being are protected. Empirical evidence has provided that while an average multinational company receives a 3.4 out of 5 for employee satisfaction, Amazon employees receive a 3.8 out of 5 for employee satisfaction (Chi and Chen, 2020). Employee satisfaction is one of the key success factors of the company that has made Amazon the world’s largest online retail business. Compared to other retail companies such as Walmart, the satisfaction level of the employees at Amazon is the highest.

CEO: It is regarded by the CEO of the company that of the employees are content to work in the company then their level of productivity is also increased which in turn will be beneficial for the company. CEOs of the company believe in innovation which has led Amazon to emerge as a market winner.

Leaders: They believe that if innovation and creativity is encouraged within the business organisation then it will lead to the further expansion of the business in the global industry by capturing a wider market (Rothaermel and McKay, 2015). Therefore, it can be deduced that the leadership style followed by the company is transformational leadership style that encourages the employees and other related personnel to be creative and provide innovative that will help in the expansion of the business in the global online e-commerce industry.

Shareholder: The role of a shareholder lies not only in funding the company but also understanding the areas of funding that could give profitable return. The company ensures to earn profit which in turn enhances profitability of the company.

Consultancies: some organisation take help of firms that could help in decision making process. These firms are known as consultancies. For example, recruitment is done by using such consultancies. These have role in understanding internal decision making process of a company ad helping them with it.

Reference list
Chi, W. and Chen, Y., 2020. Employee satisfaction and the cost of corporate borrowing. Finance Research Letters, p.101666.

Rothaermel, F.T. and McKay, M., 2015. Amazon. com, Inc. McGraw Hill Education.

Hoffman, A.E., Barbehenn, M.T., Mountz, M.C., Wurman, P.R. and D'andrea, R., Amazon Technologies Inc, 2015. System and method for positioning a mobile drive unit. U.S. Patent 9,087,314.

Topic 1: Background of the Organisation
The global e-commerce industry is growing consistently and the major business organisation which consists of the maximum share in the industry is Amazon Inc. which was founded by Jeff Bezos. The percentage of market share of the company is 5.73% as compared to other eminent e-commerce platforms such as Best buy Co., eBay Inc, GameStop Corp. and so on. The size of the business of Amazon Inc. can be indicated by the net worth of the company at $1.4 trillion which is four times the worth in 2016 (Taplin, 2017). The leaders and managers of the company has emphasized on innovation which has led it to become the world’s largest online retailer and a pioneer. Amazon Inc.’s generic corporate strategy is considered to be concentric diversification which is based on the leverage provided by the technological capabilities and following a cost leadership simultaneously (Soper, 2016).

Amazon is a multinational company with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States but has regional offices in various locations around the world for controlling their functions in that region. Since the company is an e-commerce platform therefore, various sellers sell different kinds of products such as books, apparel, shoes, jewellery, grocery, electronics, household items and so on. The services that are offered by the company consists of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital distribution, e-commerce, self-driving cars and streaming through Amazon Prime (Chi and Chen, 2020). However, the core product which has gained popularity in the last couple of years is Amazon Prime which has generated a global revenue of about $19.21 billion (Kenny, 2019). It has been identified that the business operates in the online retail industry and gains its competitive advantage from generalising the economies of scale and using advanced technology. Also, the business model is designed in such a manner that leverages the efficiencies of the synergy obtained from the internal and external stakeholders of the company.

References
Chi, W. and Chen, Y., 2020. Employee satisfaction and the cost of corporate borrowing. Finance Research Letters, p.101666.

Kenny, S.E., 2019. Strategic Audit of Amazon. com, Inc.

Soper, S., 2016. More than 50% of shoppers turn first to Amazon in product search. Bloomberg. September, 27, p.40th.

Taplin, J., 2017. Move fast and break things: How Facebook,

Topic 2: External Stakeholders
Since Amazon Inc is the world’s largest online retail company, therefore it includes a number of internal and external stakeholders. The company’s performance affects these stakeholders considerably in a positive or negative manner. The strategic decision adopted by Amazon also affects the external stakeholders of the company (Ritala et. al., 2014). Stakeholder interest is the primary interest that needs to be safeguarded by the company in order to capture a larger market share and emerge as a market winner in the industry. The external stakeholders of Amazon Inc. consist of the primarily the consumers, suppliers, creditors, public groups and investors.

Consumers:
The company is a consumer centric company and gives utmost importance to the consumer taste and preferences. Amazon always focuses on creating a favourable ecosystem for consumers which will create a willingness to purchase. For instance, Amazon Prime always focuses on creating new content for their viewers so that the company can increase the number of memberships (Cho, 2019).

Suppliers:
The relation of Amazon with the suppliers is termed as positive even though there is low bargaining power of the suppliers since the company is associated with a large number of suppliers and creditors.

Creditors:
The creditor relationship with Amazon is considered to be positive since the company has a positive reputation in not having any bad debts which influences potential creditors to provide to the company.

Public Group:
The public groups who are associated with the company are also considered to be influential as they are directly or indirectly associated with increasing the market share of the company.

Investors:
Empirical evidence has suggested that by maintaining a positive investor relationship, the company has been able to increase its share prices to $3,125 within the last three quarters. This has also increased the sales of the company by 21% which has increased the revenue of Amazon by $87.4 billion that can be attributed to the reason of Jeff Bezos becoming the richest man globally (Chi and Chen, 2020). New business opportunities of the company can be obtained by maintaining a positive investor relationship that will also help in building a wider consumer base in the long run and help in employee satisfaction of the company. If the company yields positive results in its performance, then it is possible that more investment will be obtained by them that will further extend the business proposition of the company globally.

References
Chi, W. and Chen, Y., 2020. Employee satisfaction and the cost of corporate borrowing. Finance Research Letters, p.101666.

Cho, J., 2019. Amazon. com, Inc.

Ritala, P., Golnam, A. and Wegmann, A., 2014. Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com. Industrial marketing management, 43(2), pp.236-249.

Topic 4: The business environment of the organisation and the impact of possible threats to Woolworths, Australia
The Woolworths retail chain is known to work in the sound economic system of the Australian nation (Pulker et al., 2018). The business considerations are made on the various external environmental factors such as political, social and legal elements connected to the concerned nation. However, there are a few possible threats that affect the business procedure of Woolworths.

Threats
The threats for Woolworths is analysed with the help of PESTLE business analytical tool. The same is discussed below.

Political Factor
The current instability in the political aspects of the Australian nation due to the rise in the COVID-19 may affect the overall business procedure of Woolworths.

Economic Factor
Studies have recognised that there lies a huge competition in the retail business market connected to the nation of Australia (Reinartz et al., 2019). In this connection, the major competitors of Woolworths are recognised as Coles and Aldi. The emergence of several online retail companies such as Amazon has created a huge threat to the profit-earnings ratio of Woolworths by providing the customers with the huge amount of offers, discounts and memberships (Hanninen et al., 2019).

Social Factor
The focus of the Australian citizen on the health consciousness due to the increment in the awareness, as well as the high concern of the Australian citizen in the current times concerned to health, has changed the buying process of the same (Rana and Paul, 2017).

Technological Factor
Due to the rise in the issues of COVID-19, the government of Australia is determined to suffer a huge loss, which, in turn, makes the same to not invest the proper amount in the technological sector. This, in turn, is a threat to the innovation sector of Woolworths.

Environmental Factor
The Australian Government is significantly fighting in the current times to improve its quality of air due to the rise in the population and thus the rise in the pollution. Moreover, the acceleration of the Corona Virus has deployed the health condition of the people, which becomes a threat to the retail firm of Woolworths.

References
Hänninen, M., Mitronen, L. and Kwan, S.K., 2019. Multi-sided marketplaces and the transformation of retail: A service systems perspective. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 49, pp.380-388.

Pulker, C.E., Trapp, G.S., Foulkes-Taylor, F., Scott, J.A. and Pollard, C.M., 2018. The extent and nature of supermarket own brand foods in Australia: study protocol for describing the contribution of selected products to the healthfulness of food environments. Nutrition journal, 17(1), p.95.

Rana, J. and Paul, J., 2017. Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food: A review and research agenda. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 38, pp.157-165.

Reinartz, W., Wiegand, N. and Imschloss, M., 2019. The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36(3), pp.350-366.

Friend’s post
Topic 1: Background of the Organization
Woolworths, Australia has been working as a chain of Australian supermarkets since the year 1924 (Knox, 2015). The same is known to colloquially as Woolies and owned by Woolworths Group. Woolworths is a chain of Australia's market efficiently that has employed 2, 25, 000 number of working employees in the concern of handling its 995 numbers of the store in the overall region of Australia (Van Kampen and Kirkham, 2020). This effectively helps the concerned organisation to own around 80 per cent of the supermarket share of the nation. With the help of this significant number of stores and employees, the company has been recorded to make an effective turnover for fulfilling its business requirements. The current turnover rates of the organisation are determined below:

Table 1: Business Turnover-Woolworths

(Source: Based on Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2020)

The concerned organisation of Woolworths has been determined to be headquartered in the region of Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia (Woolworths.com, 2020). However, the organisation has its efficient operational and competitive wing in the region of New Zealand and the same also operates on a global basis. The total number of global stores including the local stores of the Woolworths firm is recorded as 1, 024. The Woolworths firm is signified to specialize in the sale of the core products concerned to groceries such as vegetables, fruits, packaged items of cooked and uncooked food, meat products (Phillipov, 2017). Besides this, the company is recorded to deal with the good sale of household products, beauty and personal health as well as baby supplies and pets related products.

The concerned firm effectively works in the retail market industry of Australia’s supermarket chain and has known to earn high competitive advantage on the base of comparison done to its core competitors such as Aldi and Coles (Merrett, 2020). Based on the above study, it is concluded that Woolworths, Australia is a competitive and effective retail chain industry of the nation and working significantly on a global basis. The company has provided huge employment opportunities to working individuals with several numbers of its stores all across the globe.

References
Knox, M., 2015. Supermarket monsters: The price of Coles and Woolworths' dominance (Vol. 6). Black Inc.

Merrett, D.T., 2020. The Making of Australia's Supermarket Duopoly, 1958–2000. Australian Economic History Review.

Phillipov, M., 2017. Soft-Selling Supermarkets: Food Television and Integrated Advertising. In Media and Food Industries (pp. 193-217). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Van Kampen, T. and Kirkham, R., 2020. Assessment of the Supermarkets and Grocery Stores Sector in Australia: A Case Study of Woolworths and Coles using DEA and VAIC™. Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 18(1).

Woolworths.com, W., 2020. Woolworths Group To Transform NSW Supply Chain Network With Investment In New High-Tech Distribution Centres - Woolworths Group. [online] Woolworthsgroup.com.au. Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/media/Press_Releases/woolworths-group-to-transform-nsw-supply-chain-network-with-investment-in-new-high-tech-distribution-centres/

Woolworthsgroup.com.au. 2020. Annual Reports - Woolworths Group. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/investors/our-performance/reports/Reports/Annual_Reports

Topic 2: External Stakeholders
Since Amazon Inc is the world’s largest online retail company, therefore it includes a number of internal and external stakeholders. The company’s performance affects these stakeholders considerably in a positive or negative manner. The strategic decision adopted by Amazon also affects the external stakeholders of the company (Ritala et. al., 2014). Stakeholder interest is the primary interest that needs to be safeguarded by the company in order to capture a larger market share and emerge as a market winner in the industry. The external stakeholders of Amazon Inc. consist of the primarily the consumers, suppliers, creditors, public groups and investors.

Consumers:
The company is a consumer centric company and gives utmost importance to the consumer taste and preferences. Amazon always focuses on creating a favourable ecosystem for consumers which will create a willingness to purchase. For instance, Amazon Prime always focuses on creating new content for their viewers so that the company can increase the number of memberships (Cho, 2019).

Suppliers:
The relation of Amazon with the suppliers is termed as positive even though there is low bargaining power of the suppliers since the company is associated with a large number of suppliers and creditors.

Creditors:
The creditor relationship with Amazon is considered to be positive since the company has a positive reputation in not having any bad debts which influences potential creditors to provide to the company.

Public Group:
The public groups who are associated with the company are also considered to be influential as they are directly or indirectly associated with increasing the market share of the company.

Investors:
Empirical evidence has suggested that by maintaining a positive investor relationship, the company has been able to increase its share prices to $3,125 within the last three quarters. This has also increased the sales of the company by 21% which has increased the revenue of Amazon by $87.4 billion that can be attributed to the reason of Jeff Bezos becoming the richest man globally (Chi and Chen, 2020). New business opportunities of the company can be obtained by maintaining a positive investor relationship that will also help in building a wider consumer base in the long run and help in employee satisfaction of the company. If the company yields positive results in its performance, then it is possible that more investment will be obtained by them that will further extend the business proposition of the company globally.

References
Chi, W. and Chen, Y., 2020. Employee satisfaction and the cost of corporate borrowing. Finance Research Letters, p.101666.

Cho, J., 2019. Amazon. com, Inc.

Ritala, P., Golnam, A. and Wegmann, A., 2014. Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com. Industrial marketing management, 43(2), pp.236-249.

Discussion
Topic 3: Five most important internal stakeholder in Woolworths, Australia
The most important internal stakeholders connected to the retail chain industry Woolworths, Australia are recognised as:

• Employees
• Owners
• Board of Directors
• Managers
• Manufacturers

Employees:
The interest of this group of stakeholder lies in gaining a standard salary and significant incentives from the concerned organisation. The employees are recorded to create an influence on the overall productivity and performance level of the firm (Bogers et al., 2018).

Owners:
The most crucial internal stakeholder of Woolworths is its owners. The interest of the owners lies in having complete control over the business (Foss and Klein, 2018). The influence that owners cause to the given firm is that they can sack the employees as well as the business as per their will.

Board of Directors:
The interest of the BOD lies in the leadership aspects of the organisation. The influence caused by this group of stakeholders to Woolworths is the power of changing the quality of work in the firm with effective leadership styles and traits (Holbeche, 2018).

Managers:
Managers are interested in the salary earned from the concerned business organisation along with earning promotional recognition and appreciation in the firm (Bull and Ridley-Duff, 2019). The influence managers’ causes to Woolworths is the direction and guidance it provides to the employees to keep a check on the performance level and productivity of the firm.

Manufacturers:
The interest of this group of stakeholders’ lies in increasing the production of the company in the concern of overshooting their targets. The manufacturers’ causes influence in the supply chain management of the firm by helping the firm to meet the demand and supply needs of the market (Devin and Richards, 2018).

References
Bogers, M., Foss, N.J. and Lyngsie, J., 2018. The “human side” of open innovation: The role of employee diversity in firm-level openness. Research Policy, 47(1), pp.218-231.

Bull, M. and Ridley-Duff, R., 2019. Towards an appreciation of ethics in social enterprise business models. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(3), pp.619-634.

Devin, B. and Richards, C., 2018. Food waste, power, and corporate social responsibility in the Australian food supply chain. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(1), pp.199-210.

Foss, N.J. and Klein, P.G., 2018. Stakeholders and corporate social responsibility: An ownership perspective. In Sustainability, Stakeholder Governance, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Holbeche, L., 2018. The Agile Organization: How to build an engaged, innovative and resilient business. Kogan Page Publishers.

Topic 4: The business environment of the organisation and the impact of possible threats to Woolworths, Australia
The Woolworths retail chain is known to work in the sound economic system of the Australian nation (Pulker et al., 2018). The business considerations are made on the various external environmental factors such as political, social and legal elements connected to the concerned nation. However, there are a few possible threats that affect the business procedure of Woolworths.

Threats
The threats for Woolworths is analysed with the help of PESTLE business analytical tool. The same is discussed below.

Political Factor
The current instability in the political aspects of the Australian nation due to the rise in the COVID-19 may affect the overall business procedure of Woolworths.

Economic Factor
Studies have recognised that there lies a huge competition in the retail business market connected to the nation of Australia (Reinartz et al., 2019). In this connection, the major competitors of Woolworths are recognised as Coles and Aldi. The emergence of several online retail companies such as Amazon has created a huge threat to the profit-earnings ratio of Woolworths by providing the customers with the huge amount of offers, discounts and memberships (Hanninen et al., 2019).

Social Factor
The focus of the Australian citizen on the health consciousness due to the increment in the awareness, as well as the high concern of the Australian citizen in the current times concerned to health, has changed the buying process of the same (Rana and Paul, 2017).

Technological Factor
Due to the rise in the issues of COVID-19, the government of Australia is determined to suffer a huge loss, which, in turn, makes the same to not invest the proper amount in the technological sector. This, in turn, is a threat to the innovation sector of Woolworths.

Environmental Factor
The Australian Government is significantly fighting in the current times to improve its quality of air due to the rise in the population and thus the rise in the pollution. Moreover, the acceleration of the Corona Virus has deployed the health condition of the people, which becomes a threat to the retail firm of Woolworths.

References
Hänninen, M., Mitronen, L. and Kwan, S.K., 2019. Multi-sided marketplaces and the transformation of retail: A service systems perspective. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 49, pp.380-388.

Pulker, C.E., Trapp, G.S., Foulkes-Taylor, F., Scott, J.A. and Pollard, C.M., 2018. The extent and nature of supermarket own brand foods in Australia: study protocol for describing the contribution of selected products to the healthfulness of food environments. Nutrition journal, 17(1), p.95.

Rana, J. and Paul, J., 2017. Consumer behavior and purchase intention for organic food: A review and research agenda. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 38, pp.157-165.

Reinartz, W., Wiegand, N. and Imschloss, M., 2019. The impact of digital transformation on the retailing value chain. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 36(3), pp.350-366.