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A 'sphere of influence' ('SOI') is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural, economic, military or political domination. Also, in some areas of habitation, shopping or retail outlets or indeed destination outlets, have a sphere of influence over towns of certain areas, for example the Central Business District (CBD).
A country within the "sphere of influence" of another more powerful country may become a subsidiary of that state and serve in effect as a satellite state or de facto colony. For example, during the height of its existence, the Japanese Empire had quite a large sphere of influence, with the Japanese government influencing, or directly governing events in Korea, Manchuria, Vietnam, Taiwan, and parts of China. The "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" could thus be quite easily drawn on a map of the Pacific Ocean as a large "bubble" surrounding the islands of Japan and the Asian nations it controlled.
During the Cold War, Eastern Europe, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and, to a lesser extent (until the Sino-Soviet split) the People's Republic of China were said to lie under the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. While, to a much lesser degree Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea were often said to lie under the sphere of influence of the United States. For instance France and Great Britain were able to act independently to invade (with Israel) the Suez Canal. France was able to withdraw from the military arm of NATO, such behavior would not have been tolerated under a true sphere of influence.
Sometimes portions of a single country can fall into two distinct spheres of influence. In the colonial era the buffer states of Iran and Thailand, lying between the empires of Britain/Russia and Britain/France respectively, were divided between the spheres of influence of the imperial powers. Likewise, after World War II, Germany was divided into four occupation zones, which later consolidated into West Germany and East Germany, the former a member of NATO and the latter a member of the Warsaw Pact.
In rarer instances, multiple spheres of influence by different imperial powers can be established in a single country as a compromise between the imperial powers and also when establishing a single sphere of influence is not feasible due to the size of that single country. For example, between the 1870s and the 1910s, although the Chinese Empire still existed as a sovereign country, it was divided into 6 SOI zones officially in which Russia took the area north of the Great Wall, Germany the Shandong Province, Japan the Fujian Province, Britain the Yangtze River basin, France the southwestern Chinese provinces bordering French Indochina and Britain/France jointly the Guangdong Province. Similarly, the Ottoman Empire was divided by the imperial powers into several SOIs at around the same time.
In California "sphere of influence" has a legal meaning as a plan for the probable physical boundaries and service area of a local agency. Spheres of influence at California local agencies are regulated by Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCO). Each county in California has a LAFCO.
When talking in corporate terms, the sphere of influence of a business, organization or group can show its power and influence in the decisions of other business/organisation/groups. It can be found using many factors, such as the size, the frequency of visits, etc. In most cases, a company described as ''bigger'' has a larger sphere of influence.
For example, the software company Microsoft has a large sphere of influence in the market of operating systems; any entity wishing for its software product to be successful must ensure that it is compatible with Microsoft's products.
For another example, for companies wishing to make more profit, they must ensure the open their stores in the correct location. This is also true for shopping centres, who, to reap most profit, must be able to attract customers to its vicinity.
There is no defined scale on how to measure the sphere of influence. However, the spheres of influence of two shopping centres, two business can. This can be done by measuring how far people are prepared to travel to the shopping centre, how much time they spend in its vicinity, how often they visit, the order of goods available, etc.

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See also

★ Percentages agreement (between Churchill and Stalin)

References

External links

★ The CommonCensus Map Project - Calculates the spheres of influence for American cities based on voting