PEST analysis

Part of a series on
Strategy
Major dimensions Strategy • Strategic management Military strategy Strategic planning • Game theory Strategic studies • Strategic thinking
Major thinkers Michael Porter  • Rita Gunther McGrath Bruce Henderson  • Gary Hamel Candace A. Yano  • C. K. Prahalad Jim Collins  • Liddell Hart Carl von Clausewitz  • Sun Tzu Julian Corbett  • Alfred Thayer Mahan J.C. Wylie  • Adrian Slywotzky Sharon Oster  • Chris Zook Henry Mintzberg
Concepts Business model  • Competitive advantage Value chain  • Performance effects Core competency • Generic strategies Mission statement
Frameworks and tools SWOT • Five forces Balanced scorecard • Ansoff matrix OGSM • Managerial grid model PEST analysis • Growth–share matrix STP • MECE principle Business Model Canvas • Kraljic matrix Strategic Grid Model • Strategy map • VRIO
v t e

In business analysis, PEST analysis ("political, economic, socio-cultural and technological") describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. It is part of an external environment analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research, and gives an overview of the different macro-environmental factors to be taken into consideration. It is a strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations.

PEST analysis was developed in 1967 by Aguilar as an environmental scanning framework.^[1] Aguilar argued that firms must scan the economic, technical, political and social categories (ETPS) that may affect strategy, defining environmental scanning as follows, “scanning for information about events and relationships in a company’s outside environment, the knowledge of which would assist top management in its task of charting the company’s future course of action.”^[1]