Using your chosen company’s domestic environment identify its economic environment and compare and contrast it with your selected global economic environment using Rostow and Galbraith Traditional society – This first stage is characterized by subsistence level – basic farming, bartering. Preconditions for take-off – Industrial development has begun; has developed an international interest. Take-off – This is where level 2 has moved into busier, concentrated activities in industrialization, with innovation exhibited in technology. Drive to maturity – Longer sustained activity, developing infrastructure, diversifying business activities, industries, and increased focus on quality of life. Age of high mass consumption – Broad consumer demands are met by mass production. John Kenneth Galbraith: is best known for his theories and writings on capitalistic societies. In his most famous work, The Affluent Society (1958), which became a bestseller, Galbraith outlined his view that to become successful, post-World War II America should make large investments in infrastructure, such as highways and education, using funds from general taxation. Galbraith also critiqued the assumption that continually increasing material production is a sign of economic and societal health. Interesting, these two seemingly obvious conclusions are entirely consistent with the final stage of Rostow’s theory, where what he calls “mass consumption” defines the fully developed economic environment. Galbraith (2020) has voiced a dramatic response to the COVID-19 pandemic interruption of business enterprise in the U.S., stating, “Disaster capitalism is being tried, and the worst case is now the likely case. But there is a scale beyond which disaster capitalism cannot go.” He warns new financing model is needed to cope with “carnage” and a corresponding response by business, which must recognize there is no return to a former normal. “A new financing model – cooperative, with public support – will be required to re-establish small businesses. Local, decentralized cultural and sporting venues will have to replace mass-based experiences; these too will require cooperative structures and public support. In short, the only way out, remotely acceptable to the population at large, will require a comprehensive restructuring of the economy on a cooperative foundation, with the government stepping up to guaranteed funding, employment, and public investments.” (Galbraith, 2020)
