ABSTRACT
The firm, viewed as an evolving system, relates and interacts with the market system and other rules and institutions named “environmental systems”, which constitute a set of conditions and circumstances within which the firm is located and can be defined as the firm’s overall system. In traditional business studies, this system of conditions and circumstances, whatever their origin and type, in which the firm finds the conditions for its survival and development, represents the general environment in which it operates 1 . Given the complexity and variety of the relationships between the firm and its environment, we can differentiate between the general and the specific environment. Within the general environment, its interconnected characteristics can be classified on the basis of their degree of interdependence. This categorization helps us identify the specific systems that make up the general environment. Consequently, the general environment can be subdivided into the following systems 2 :
physical-natural environment;
political and institutional enviroment;
economic environment;
social-cultural environment.
