Politics, economy, society, and technology are the 4 key global factors that influence UK businesses.
The impact of global factors on the UK economy and UK business can actually be explored by breaking down the various strategies businesses in the United Kingdom employ, and then looking at the factors that influence and affect those strategies.
To start, we can look at the following UK business strategies that have a reliance on international and global markets:
- Export to forgeign markets
- Association with trade blocs
- Partnering with strong international markets
- Establishing overseas competitveness
The following are seen as factors that can influence the success rate of the aforementioned strategies:
- Politics
- Society and culture
- Economic stability
- Technology
These are known by the acronym PEST, and are a well established group of factors that can impact not only UK business organisations, but also the economy of any sovereign state that takes part in international trade or the free market.
For more info, here are a few sources I've found extremely helpful:
1000 Venutures discussing PEST: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/business_environment.html
Disruptors (described as "Forces or factors that can disrupt global operations, markets or wider society that can present both threats and opportunities.") - globaldisruptors.wordpress.com/