please answer the following by numbers and supporting references
1.What is a strategic group? Of what value is knowledge of the firm’s strategic group in formulating that firm’s strategy?
2.What are the differences between the general environment and the industry environment? Why are these differences important?
3.How do the five forces of competition in an industry affect its profitability potential? Explain.
4.What is the importance of collecting and interpreting data and information about competitors? What practices should a firm use to gather competitor intelligence and why?
5.What is the external environmental analysis process (four parts)? What does the firm want to learn when using this process?
6.Assess an organization’s general environment.
7.Evaluate an organization’s external environment
8.Evaluate an organization’s industry environment.