The impact of modern macroeconomic factors on the development of the economic strategies of companies

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented im- pact on the global economy, and has significantly increased the uncertainty inherent in the external environment. The factor of possible lockdown is added to the parameters of uncertainty of macroeconomic indicators of domestic and foreign markets. If companies could predict inflation dy- namics or consumer sentiment in some way, it is nonethe- less difficult to predict another outbreak of the pandemic. The negative effects of the pandemic have had a highly significant impact on the economic situation of business- es, which makes this factor especially important for the development of economic strategies. The aim of the study is to determine the impact of changes in macroeconomic variables due to crises on the development of a company’s economic strategy. The study was conducted through lin- ear regression models, which were tested by means of the least squares method. The COVID-19 pandemic effect was introduced into the models through the use of a dummy variable. The results of the study showed that companies ex- pect a decrease in sales, a reduction in the wages of employ- ees and indeed the number of employees themselves. The expectations of businesses regarding the volume of foreign investment and their own investment costs have worsened. Businesses are changing their economic strategies from de- velopment strategies to survival strategies accompanied by cost reductions. At the same time, macroeconomic indica- tors, including the inflation index and the exchange rate, are expected to deteriorate. The results obtained can be used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on business strategies and the economic expectations of businesses. The study opens new areas for further research, in particular the sec- toral impact of the pandemic on the development of compa- nies’ economic strategies. The methodological limitation is that the industry specifics of companies were not taken into account. In addition, the pandemic impact data available for analysis are currently limited to the four quarters of 2020. The limitation pertaining to implementation is that the im- pact of the pandemic on the company’s strategy may differ depending on the field of the company’s activity. © 2022, WSB University. All rights reserved.