Pest National
. PEST Analysis
Political
Few countries can compete with the Philippines when it comes to corruption which surprisingly involves the bookstore industry by way of the Bureau of Customs, according to Robin (2009) in his article “The Great Book Blockade”. Unfortunately, the customs official took their corruption to the shipping of books ever since the success of the international best seller book, Twilight by Stephen Meyer. When of the examiners of the customs official opened a shipment of books, he demanded that duty (a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law) be paid on it, which according to the Florence Agreement – a UN treaty that was signed by the Philippines in 1952 – wasn’t necessary because the agreement guarantees the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” which in that case of Twilight by Stephen Meyer was a cultural book and was exempted from duty.
Economic
Lack of capital investment in more sophisticated machines, lack of skilled manpower to run the industry, proliferation of many printing firms, stiff competition, lack of government incentives, lack of government control, are just some of the major problems plaguing the printing industry, according to an article at jagat.or.jp “State of the Philippines Printing Industry”. Without the printing industry, the bookstore industry would be greatly affected, especially those book publishers that prints their books locally to avoid shipping cost.
Socio-cultural
Bookstore Industry consumers are sequential searchers; they visit stores to learn their prices and then compare after every visit the cost and benefit of continuing search, according to Hubert (2012) in his research “Bookstore Industry”. Power buyers (discussed in the Bargaining Power of Buyers section), although avid in buying books, summing up to purchasing at least 1 book per week, still considers in the price of the book they plan to purchase. It
Political
Few countries can compete with the Philippines when it comes to corruption which surprisingly involves the bookstore industry by way of the Bureau of Customs, according to Robin (2009) in his article “The Great Book Blockade”. Unfortunately, the customs official took their corruption to the shipping of books ever since the success of the international best seller book, Twilight by Stephen Meyer. When of the examiners of the customs official opened a shipment of books, he demanded that duty (a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law) be paid on it, which according to the Florence Agreement – a UN treaty that was signed by the Philippines in 1952 – wasn’t necessary because the agreement guarantees the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” which in that case of Twilight by Stephen Meyer was a cultural book and was exempted from duty.
Economic
Lack of capital investment in more sophisticated machines, lack of skilled manpower to run the industry, proliferation of many printing firms, stiff competition, lack of government incentives, lack of government control, are just some of the major problems plaguing the printing industry, according to an article at jagat.or.jp “State of the Philippines Printing Industry”. Without the printing industry, the bookstore industry would be greatly affected, especially those book publishers that prints their books locally to avoid shipping cost.
Socio-cultural
Bookstore Industry consumers are sequential searchers; they visit stores to learn their prices and then compare after every visit the cost and benefit of continuing search, according to Hubert (2012) in his research “Bookstore Industry”. Power buyers (discussed in the Bargaining Power of Buyers section), although avid in buying books, summing up to purchasing at least 1 book per week, still considers in the price of the book they plan to purchase. It