Emerging Trends in Business Power – Progress Report
William Craigle
ESC
Emerging Trends in Business Power
Different businesses have diverse sources of power that determine their goal achievement, sustainability and eventual success. There are multiple factors that influence this power held by individual business entities (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). Business power can basically be defined as the ability to influence people and available resources towards meeting organizational goals and objectives (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). This is deemed necessary especially, in a competitive environment where individual ventures seek to achieve sustainability in the long term. Theoretically, the conventional forms of power exhibited by businesses are legitimate power, coercive power, expert power, referent power and reward power (Johnson, 2011). The contemporary business environment is significantly volatile with new trends emerging and shaping how business dynamics interact (Stobart, 2016). New trends in business power are more diversified with technology playing a significant role when compared to the traditional forms of business power. Current trends are leaning towards acquisition of technology and the ability to use it to impact change in diverse aspects of business operations Casado, R., & Younas, M. (2015). Emerging trends in business power differ significantly from conventional forms in terms of scope, applicability and innovation. The trends are also driven by consumer trends as well increasing global demand for innovative products that solve both new and existing problems (Casado & Younas, 2015). Conventional business power is more profit oriented, limited in scope and people oriented. This paper will evaluate emerging trends in business power that are shaping the contemporary world of business, demonstrate how they differ from the conventional forms of business power, and outline the unique causes or driving forces behind them.
Review of Literature
In order to have an in depth foundation and understanding of business power and the dynamics around it, this section of the research will explore previous research findings and literature. According to Hacker and Pierson (2002), customers form a significant part of business power as they determine business operations and activities employed by business owners. Based on this perception, business power can described as the ability to influence consumer behaviors using various strategies in a manner that results to specific actions that are beneficial for the business. In this regard, having business power that positively influences consumer behaviour is a desirable aspect for any business. According to Johnson (2016), businesses may exhibit power in the form of legitimate power, coercive power, expert power, referent or reward power. These are the major forms of power; even though individuals businesses may develop unique powers based on their innovation and nature of business operations involved (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). Businesses remain in existence due to the purchasing behaviour of consumers. Business power in the scope of consumers therefore shows effective business leadership, which is critical for business growth and survival.
The degree of any form of power held by a business is influenced by the operational factors that interact around the business. These business factors also determine how individual businesses utilize this power to their advantage. Operational business factors can broadly be categorized into political factors, environmental factors and socioeconomic factors (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). They cut across generally in all businesses but differ in terms of specificity and scope for individuals businesses and industries. Individual businesses may also have other unique factors from other ventures. Businesses may find their power in one of the factors or in a combination of several factors, with varying degrees of intensity and influence (Fuchs, 2007). With advanced technology and globalization, there are emerging trends that are having a significant effect on business power dynamics (Stobart, 2016). These trends are forming foundations for future business power and its impacts.
New trends in business power are mainly focused on delivering business superiority in an efficient manner that is cost effective, sustainable and appealing to the markets. Business intelligence is merging as one of the contemporary trend that is changing the business landscape and influencing the conventional forms of business power (Casado & Younas, 2015). Business superiority in the contemporary space is based on the ability to make innovative and accurate decisions that are guided by consideration of information that is scientifically analyzed and manipulated. Big data analytics and cloud services are also emerging trends that are compressively shaping the path to future sources of business power (Casado & Younas, 2015). Other trends include radical adjacency where businesses are innovatively diversifying into areas where they do not have current managerial experience. Emerging trends in business power seem to be shifting from being people oriented to technology oriented.
Conventional business power is mainly people orientated and focuses on the ability to control business resources. It is less innovative and has a smaller scope of operation (Casado & Younas, 2015). Emerging trends in business power differ from traditional forms in the sense that they are futuristic and technologically oriented. They also differ in terms of innovation as they seek creative ways of doing things such as countering competition, appealing to consumers and introducing new products (Casado & Younas, 2015). The new trends also differ in terms of scope of applicability, which in most cases is globally oriented other than regionally or nationally. The new trends in business power are driven by growing global markets, demand for new products, as well as intense competition in existing businesses. The main drivers of the emerging trends are consumer oriented forces that demand effective ways of solving new or existing problems (Casado & Younas, 2015).
Research Questions
This research will seek to answer the following research questions.
- What are the emerging trends in business power in the contemporary business world?
- How do emerging trends in business power differ from traditional forms of business power?
- What are the main causes of the new emerging trends in business power and how do these causes differ from traditional forms?
- What are the emerging political factors that influence business power?
- What are the emerging socio-economic factors that influence business power?
Methodology
The research methodology will follow a qualitative design where already published sources will be used. Journals, online publications and books will be used as the sources of data for the study. The methodology will focus specifically on literature covering business power, business growth and sustainability. Inclusion criteria will be formulated and used to select credible sources in order to ensure that only relevant information will be used to draw reliable and accurate conclusions.
References
Casado, R., & Younas, M. (2015). Emerging trends and technologies in big data processing. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 27(8), 2078-2091.
Culpepper, P. (2011). Quiet politics and business power. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Fuchs, D. A. (2007). Business power in global governance (pp. 139-158). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Hacker, J. & Pierson, P. (2002). Business Power and Social Policy: Employers and the Formation of the American Welfare State. Politics & Society, 30(2), 277-325. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032329202030002004
Johnson, J. (2016). 5 Types of Power in Businesses. Smallbusiness.chron.com. Retrieved 22 September 2016, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-types-power-businesses-18221.html
Steiner, G., & Steiner, J. (2009). Business, government and society: A managerial perspective. McGraw-Hill Professional.
Stobart, P. (2016). Brand Power. New York: Springer.
