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Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the Malaysian government's actions towards the aviation industry to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and the transition phase from pandemic to endemic. Transition phase refers to a temporary period before the country could fully enter the endemic phase which is subject to an announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Theoretical framework:The study on air transport affected by pandemic and industry action toward the endemic phase. This study refers to the conceptual framework for emergency department design in a pandemic by Aujirapongpan (2023): Relationship between state, hospital and ED in pandemic preparedness planning and response. Design/methodology/approach: The approach used is qualitative research that are observation and literature review. Findings: The results demonstrate the Malaysian government's actions during the transition period from pandemic to endemic. Restrictions on travel between areas cause the public to be unable to move at will, causing passengers to be unable to buy plane tickets. The government's actions have indeed had an impact on the airline company's income. Among the significant effects are the workers who were laid off in the era of the pandemic. At the same time, the government is also trying to help airlines financially to survive while waiting for the endemic period. The Malaysian government does not have a specific framework for the airline industry to face the pandemic, however, the Malaysian government gives a quick reaction to control the situation. Research, Practical & Social implications: The study gives comparative responses on the aviation industry by the government when faced with a pandemic, as well as planning for the transition to the endemic phase. Originality/value: The result indicates the government participation and action changes of the air transport operation on the Covid-19 pandemic to endemic transition phase. © 2023 AOS-Estratagia and Inovacao. All rights reserved.
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This Research Note provides an assessment of the burgeoning interdisciplinary literature surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on both individuals and firms, with a particular focus on the heterogeneity in government responses and their implications for international finance and IB research. In particular, we discuss disparities in vaccine distribution, government policy responses, and impacts in low-income versus high-income countries, as well as lessons learned from the pandemic. We describe an important source of data in this area and provide ideas for future research.
Cette note de recherche vise à évaluer la florissante littérature interdisciplinaire entourant la pandémie de COVID-19 et son impact à la fois sur les individus et les entreprises, avec une attention particulière portée sur l'hétérogénéité des réponses gouvernementales et leurs implications pour la recherche en affaires et finance internationales. En particulier, nous discutons des disparités dans la distribution des vaccins, des réponses des politiques gouvernementales et des impacts dans les pays à faible revenu par rapport aux pays à revenu élevé, ainsi que des leçons tirées de la pandémie. Nous décrivons une importante source de données dans ce domaine et proposons des idées pour de futures recherches.
Esta Nota de Investigación suministra una evaluación de la floreciente literatura interdisciplinario alrededor de la pandemia del COVID-19 y su impacto en tanto los individuos y las empresas con un enfoque particular en la heterogeneidad de las respuestas gubernamentales y sus implicaciones para la investigación en finanzas internacional y negocios internacionales. En particular, discutimos las disparidades en la distribución de vacunas, las respuestas a políticas de gobierno, y los impactos en países de bajos ingresos en comparación con los de altos ingresos, y también las lecciones aprendidas de la pandemia. Describimos una fuente importante de datos en esta área y damos ideas para investigación futura.
Esta Nota de Pesquisa fornece uma avaliação da crescente literatura interdisciplinar a respeito da pandemia COVID-19 e seu impacto tanto em indivíduos quanto empresas, com foco particular na heterogeneidade nas respostas governamentais e suas implicações para finanças internacionais e pesquisa em IB. Em particular, discutimos disparidades na distribuição de vacinas, respostas de políticas governamentais e impactos em países de baixa renda em relação a países de alta renda, bem como lições aprendidas com a pandemia. Descrevemos uma importante fonte de dados nesta área e fornecemos ideias para pesquisas futuras.
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Understanding what learning style preferences exist in international business classrooms is important for the overall design of learning objectives and learning outcomes in business education. This is especially important as 94% of the global learner population moved online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the majority of business learners. The study used the Felder-Silverman Model of learning styles to investigate business learners in a hospitality discipline in the United States (n = 365) and in Singapore (n = 154). Findings revealed that two learning styles of business learners were significantly different between the two data sets. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of learning preferences of business students and how learning styles across these two cultures may assist instructors in the overall design of their international business classes. © 2023,International Journal of Business. All Rights Reserved.
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The pandemic is not only changing the structure and functioning of the world economy, but it will also have lasting impacts on the international business strategies of large multinational enterprises (MNEs). We have identified new research questions in the realm of effective governance design, host country opportunities and risks, appropriate levels of subsidiary integration, and the desired involvement of foreign subsidiaries in expanding the firm's activity domain. For scholars studying the strategies of the world's largest firms, this is an opportunity to design better research studies, more closely aligned with managerial practice and therefore more likely to include sound managerial prescriptions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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Purpose: This paper aims to understand how the global supply chain in the medical device industry embraces resilience by adopting agility approach following COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts an interpretative approach to examine the qualitative data drawn from interviews and observation under dynamic capability theory. The data collection concerned multiple stakeholders involved in purchasing and supply management in the medical device market: manufacturing suppliers, channel partners, hospital management and end-users. The coding analysis uses an application that helps the researchers categorise the nodes and extend the existing literature. Findings: The findings show that global supply chain leaders leverage the dynamic capability by centralising the business process decision to respond to the shifting demand from the local governments to the national health ministry, shaping the partnership style from the area- to the funnel-based agreement, even though it exposes a risk of product acceptability from the end-users, encouraging the distributor to convert just-in-time approach into holding safety stock to avoid penalty from missing the procurement target even and restructuring the local partners' debts to manage long-term performance. Originality/value: This study extends the emerging literature in international business by underpinning dynamic capability theory. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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During the course of this epidemic, the Corona virus had a significant influence not only regular lives but also on international business. Protecting one's appearance has recently emerged as a widespread fashion trend and can now be considered the norm. In the present day or in the future, a large number of individuals will be obliged to wear masks in order to protect not only themselves but also the people around as well as the surrounding area. Face recognition has emerged as an increasingly vital tool in the fight against global terrorism. As part of this work, we are developing an AI system that will be able to determine whether or not a person is concealing their identity by wearing a mask. It will be of assistance to us in preventing the virus from spreading across the environment. In order to construct this work, we require the assistance of Machine Learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and Neural Network (NN), all of which will assist us in realizing the purpose of this work. We needed jupyter notebook in order to complete this work, and we also needed to install numpy, opencv, tensorflow, and numpy as well as a learning tool. This strategy will assist us in identifying the individual who is concealing their identity by wearing a mask in the imageand in real life picture. Additionally, it is able to recognize and distinguish a moving mask or face. © 2022 IEEE.
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As the world continues to navigate a global pandemic that ignores national borders, it is not surprising to find a divide between the interests of vaccine-producing countries - and their entire supply chain networks for intermediates and raw materials - and countries that are primarily reliant on these producers for their vaccine consumption. This paper puts this debate in the context of a multi country strategic game where the major players have been able to produce a vaccine for COVID-19 and control the distribution of the vaccine and all its components. To address this issue of sovereign players, some have raised the possibility of a GATT/WTO intervention into COVID-19 vaccine sale and distribution. In addition, a legal battle is taking shape over lucrative patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines, with drug companies pitted against each other and government and academic scientists over who invented what. At the heart of the disputes is the billion-dollar question: Who can claim to have invented important elements of the COVID-19 vaccines? In June 2022, the WTO struck deals on a partial patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines. Most observers believe that this change to the intellectual property rules will have limited impact on actual production for now because a current surplus of vaccines globally means there is little demand among vaccine makers to increase output. The implications are clear. The WTO compromise has allowed the existence of high hurdles for exports of products made under such a license. Given the limited WTO compromise agreement there are several options available to solve the problem of lack of access to the COVID-19 vaccine consuming nations at this stage. First, the US Supreme Court could invalidate each of the pharmaceutical companies' patent requests. Second, individuals could file legal actions designed to disgorge the monopoly revenue of these pharmaceutical companies. If no legal action is taken, along these lines, and the WTO compromise is insufficient to solve the COVID-19 vaccine shortages in the developing world, then the developed countries will be opening the gate to PRC delivery of their COVID-19 vaccine to the entire developing and emerging markets. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.
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Maritime shipping lines and global terminal operators have benefited from economies of scale to expand geographically and functionally their infrastructure, leading to a corporatized network. Terminal operators are key asset managers seeking value creation by expanding the global maritime container terminal infrastructure network. While corporatization has systematically ensured that terminal capacity was created to accommodate the rise in global trade volumes, the network hit its boundaries when confronted with COVID-19 induced global supply chain disruptions. This paper provides a better understanding of the importance of infrastructure and observed corporatization as a framework for explaining economic processes, notably when transport infrastructures are extensive and capital-intensive. The structure of the global container shipping network is analyzed to unveil the realities of liner service networks operated by shipping lines, and the market structure and consolidation in container shipping and terminal operations. The discussion on the corporatization of the global maritime infrastructure network for container handling is embedded in international business literature. This study also extracts the main implications of the current structure and governance of the global maritime infrastructure network for international business policy, with a particular focus on the current market structure and network resilience.
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Purpose: This study aims to provide a case example of two partner institutions and business faculty who creatively used a collaborative online international learning (COIL) experience during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to online learning to internationalize an undergraduate business class and use existing technology to offer a case study project to further students' global mindset. Design/methodology/approach: Using open-ended qualitative comments from an American college and a Peruvian university, researchers uncovered key themes from a virtual COIL-based learning experience offered as part of an international business class. Findings: Student end-of-course evaluation comments from both countries validated the success of the learning experience and value of working together with other students and faculty in a virtual setting. Research limitations/implications: Areas for future research are provided to extend these initial exploratory findings. However, the implications are clear that the methodology is also appropriate in nonpandemic situations and can quickly bring a global mindset to remote corners of the globe and ensure all students experience the "virtual” study abroad, even when there are travel limitations or budget restrictions for students or the institutions. Practical implications: The implementation detail provided can be easily replicated by other institutions with a global mindset and internationalization goals. Social implications: The proliferation of COIL-based experiences will impact how study abroad experiences are defined and offered in the future. Originality/value: While researchers have documented COIL experiences in the academic literature, their use during the COVID-19 pandemic, as often the only solution for on-going internationalization, has not been thoroughly studied or documented. In addition, the class activities further used team-based international workplace pedagogy, authentic engagement and technology. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Without intercultural communication skills, an unbalanced power-dynamic will continue to affect the success of individuals, organizations, and societies in the global market. The COVID-19 crisis has revealed an urgent demand for virtual learning opportunities for working professionals. This instrumental qualitative case study documented the experiences of a group of international working professionals participating in a virtual international business English training. Drawing on intercultural communicative competence and experiential e-learning models, the study documented innovative practices designing and implementing the training, the experiences of the working professionals who participated in the training, and how the training enhanced the working professionals' intercultural communication skills. Data collected included online questionnaires, artifacts, videoconference interviews, and the research journal. Data analysis for the study followed Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis process. As a result, dissertation findings identified innovative practices for designing and implementing a virtual international business English training program for working professionals centering attention on intercultural communication. The study bridged the gap between existing knowledge and instructional practices in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Incorporating experiential learning was a novel insight into improving the theoretical models utilized in the study. Learner confidence as an important factor in improving language and intercultural communication was another notable finding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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This article assesses the relationship between consumer vulnerability (CV) and well-being (WB) by comparing the effects of ordinary (non-pandemic) and pandemic consumption contexts among Portuguese and Brazilian consumers. Data on pre-and post-pandemic perceived vulnerability and well-being from a cross-cultural sample of 397 consumers were analyzed through structural equations modelling using the PLS-Path. The results revealed an inverse relationship between CV and well-being, which worsened with the emergence of the pandemic. Refund Policies, Product Promotions and Purchase Ability are the dimensions of CV identified as the most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, fear proved to mediate the effect of vulnerability on well-being partially. The findings allow us to conclude that the most disrupted CV dimensions during COVID-19 are Refund Policy (RP), Purchase Ability (PA), and Product Promotion (PP). Studies comparing consumer vulnerability in international contexts are scarce. By finding the most critical dimensions of CV during a pandemic crisis, this study provides novel insights for companies and public institutions when planning responses and strategies to future disruptive occurrences. The conclusions represent an original contribution by analysing and comparing consumers' vulnerability in an everyday consumption situation and an extreme situation deployed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Valuable insights for governments and policymakers are provided. Firms working in international markets can use the insights to adapt their business strategy as effects on well-being vary across cultures.
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With the rapid changes taking place in international manufacturing, there is a need for new theories linking the drivers for manufacturing location decisions to the influence of government. A Delphi study in 2017 of senior industrialists in Europe from capital intensive, complex technology manufacturing sectors provided evidence on the importance of government-specific factors for final location decisions. This was because of the influence of government policies as an exogenous factor on the drivers for international manufacturing, including cost effective, flexible supply chains and the use of the new technologies of Industry 4.0, in an uncertain global political climate. The findings are used to develop a new theoretical framework comprising the decision onion and the government policy matrix for multinational company manufacturing location decisions. This systematic approach to the influence of government will assist in the development of policy in the post-Covid 19 era of transformational change in industrial location strategies.
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Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal for international business (IB) activities, leaving them pondering their next steps. The decreasing effectiveness of current vaccines to protect individuals against new variants have created uncertainty on how to respond to the new waves of the COVID-19 infection. This study aims to empirically assesses how IBs perceive the unfolding challenges in the supply chain due to the pandemic and the solutions. Design/methodology/approach: The survey data is obtained from 166 logistics professionals in Hong Kong and India. Findings: The results reveal that returns on investment, logistics, delays and imports are the most affected areas. The most often recommended solutions for supply chain management (SCM) include using local manufacturing capabilities, analytics and automation, offering better customer service, providing more effective transportation means, ensuring diligence around optimization and focusing on sustainability. Originality/value: The findings of this study help to improve supply chain operations. This study also provides recommendations for changes to SCM in response to the new normal. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Transboundary challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, energy transformation and the Covid-19 pandemic put vast pressures on generating solutions. They also call for updated teaching providing the required capabilities for international business (IB) and -entrepreneurship (1E) students. This paper presents a teaching initiative supporting master's students to develop an overview of such contemporary and timely challenges and global concerns. The course, developed jointly by two universities and first administered in 2020 at LUT University, combines economic, social, and environmental sustainability aspects with managerial and entrepreneurial issues on IB, triggering the students to rethink and critically address ways forward. Students develop skills and competences to tackle complex real-life problems in collaboration with others, facilitating their entrepreneurial, global mind-set and sensitivity to cultural issues in IB. Thus, the presented teaching approach and course initiative contributes to theory and practice of teaching 1B, by presenting how key challenges in contemporary IB can be incorporated in international business education of universities.
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Purpose This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs). Design/methodology/approach Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data. Findings The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors. Practical implications The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend. Originality/value This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.
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Maritime shipping lines and global terminal operators have benefited from economies of scale to expand geographically and functionally their infrastructure, leading to a corporatized network. Terminal operators are key asset managers seeking value creation by expanding the global maritime container terminal infrastructure network. While corporatization has systematically ensured that terminal capacity was created to accommodate the rise in global trade volumes, the network hit its boundaries when confronted with COVID-19 induced global supply chain disruptions. This paper provides a better understanding of the importance of infrastructure and observed corporatization as a framework for explaining economic processes, notably when transport infrastructures are extensive and capital-intensive. The structure of the global container shipping network is analyzed to unveil the realities of liner service networks operated by shipping lines, and the market structure and consolidation in container shipping and terminal operations. The discussion on the corporatization of the global maritime infrastructure network for container handling is embedded in international business literature. This study also extracts the main implications of the current structure and governance of the global maritime infrastructure network for international business policy, with a particular focus on the current market structure and network resilience. © 2022, Academy of International Business.
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Purpose - This study aims to provide probable future developments in the form of holistic scenarios for business negotiations. In recent years, negotiation research did not put a lot of emphasis on external changes. Consequently, current challenges and trends are scarcely integrated, making it difficult to support negotiation practice perspectively. Design/methodology/approach - This paper applies the structured, multi-method approach of scenario analysis. To examine the future space of negotiations, this combines qualitative and quantitative measures to base our analysis on negotiation experts' assessments, estimations and visions of the negotiation future. Findings - The results comprise an overview of five negotiation scenarios in the year 2030 and of their individual drivers. The five revealed scenarios are: digital intelligence, business as usual, powerful network - the route to collaboration, powerful network - the route to predominance and system crash. Originality/value - The scenario analysis is a suitable approach that enables to relate various factors of the negotiation environment to negotiations themselves and allows an examination of future changes in buyer-seller negotiations and the creation of possible future scenarios. The identified scenarios provide an orientation for business decisions in the field of negotiation.
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Research summary We offer a novel view of formal institutions as a layer cake, suggesting a structural relationship between higher-level and lower-level institutions. In this context, inter-layer conflict imposes complex pressures on multinational corporations (MNCs). These tensions have become more rife amid the growth in global connectedness and the commensurate increase in the importance of within-country differences. Drawing on political science and economic geography research, we introduce regime type and the distribution of economic resources as conditions under which inter-layer conflict is most likely to arise. We leverage two caselets to illustrate the inter-layer conflict and the novel response options MNCs can deploy. Our perspective advances the theoretical understanding of intra-national institutional diversity, laying the groundwork for future research at the nexus of institutional theory and global strategy. Managerial summary Firms often encounter opposing pressures in their operating environments because institutions within the nation-state impose misaligned policies. Despite acknowledging that such interactions exist, firms traditionally did not make it an integral part of their strategy. We demarcate how formal institutions cascade, forming a layer cake of relevant influences whereby the structural relationship between higher-level and lower-level institutions may impose complex pressures when in conflict. We turn to political science and economic geography literatures for explanations of when such conflict is most likely and offer a window into the responses by multinational firms using caselets within the COVID-19 pandemic context. We offer new avenues for research on the ways in which institutions function to affect multinational firms in a global economy increasingly characterized by institutional complexity.
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Globalization is a dynamic process that has led to constant trade based on export/import, often neglecting ecological production processes. During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deglobalization process has taken place to achieve the survival of many companies, mainly SMEs;however, in parallel, there has been the globalization process, which in these times demands that they use resources in an efficient way, which is why the globalization processes for economic reactivation must follow circular economy processes. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Purpose>Realising the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will require substantial efforts from both governments, businesses, civil society and academic researchers. This paper aims to discuss the contributions that the international business (IB) discipline can make to promoting the SDGs.Design/methodology/approach>The paper is conceptual.Findings>The authors argue that IB can contribute to promoting the SDGs, given IB’s expertise on the multinational enterprise (MNE) and knowledge that is relevant to the international dimensions that most SDGs have. However, paradigmatic features of IB such as a focus on firm-level financial performance and on the MNE as an organisation, and dominance of quantitative methods, may presently restrict the discipline’s contributions to the SDGs.Originality/value>The authors present a set of recommendations for IB research on the SDGs, many of which imply an extension of the boundaries of the current IB paradigm.