Course Number: BU111Subject: Business What is PEST/PESTLE? PEST/PESTLE stands for the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors that impact a company. These are known as “external factors”. How can I find information on PEST? You can find a complete PEST country analysis report using Marketline. Conduct a country search to locate a PEST report. Tip If the PEST country analysis (via Marketline) does not contain useful information, consider splitting up each letter or factor separately, i.e. "P – political", and do research on it using the recommended tools below. Consult the following tools to consider each P.E.S.T factor: Political - identifying the political factors that may impact your venture or industry, i.e. government laws and regulations Tools you can use: Business Source Complete (articles) Factiva (articles) LexisNexis Academic (click "Search by subject or topic" and select "Country Information") Passport GMID (reports) Trade association websites* (regulatory) Public company filings (via SEDAR) *Be sure to uncheck all databases, with the exception of Associations Canada. Economic - analyzing the economic factors and how these factors may impact your venture or industry, i.e. exchange rate Tools you can use: Conference Board of Canada (reports) Passport GMID (reports) Social - examining the demographic, social, and/or consumer trends that could impact your venture or industry, i.e. social norms Tools you can use: Passport GMID (reports) Statistics Canada: 2011 Canadian Census & Canadian National Household Survey Technological - identifying the trends in innovation, usage of technology, access to technology that could influence your venture or industry, i.e. R&D or patents Tools you can use: Business Source Complete (articles) Canadian Newsstand Complete (articles) Passport GMID (reports) Tips when searching for articles "*" is a truncation symbol for variation word endings Boolean operators, AND, OR & NOT are used to connect search terms For searching help, click the "?", "Help", or "Tips" buttons on any of the trade journal databases. Consult these video tutorials for additional tips: Finding Articles on a Topic, Finding Newspaper Articles, Better Searching Using AND, OR, NOT, Using Keywords Effectively