Introduction
Globalization has prompted immense growth in trade and international business. Over the last decade, the world’s economy experienced a sufficient rise, which came to a grinding halt with the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic has influenced international business to the point of many companies being heavily damaged and even shut down. Now, many researchers are trying to determine the ways of preventing such economic disasters from ever happening. As a result, some research papers have been published to reach the final solution. This paper aims to summarize the topic of such an article, its authors’ hypothesis, the used methodology, and their research results, alongside applying these results to an existing organization.
Main body
The article under analysis uses the uncertainty in international business during the world pandemic as an object of the research (Sharma et al., 2020). The article’s authors introduce the hypothesis, which states that creating a comprehensive framework for dealing with uncertainty during unprecedented times will help international business managers cope with the consequences of similar situations in the future. To conduct the research and confirm the given hypothesis, the authors analyzed the existing international business literature and summarized the experience of the companies and organizations that had faced difficulties in the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue was addressed by recognizing different types of uncertainty, their antecedents and outcomes, establishing the coping strategies, and their consequences.
Having worked on the proposed hypothesis by implementing the methods described above, the authors presented the following results. First, international business managers should keep in mind all the dimensions and types of uncertainty as a whole to develop a cohesive approach to dealing with such disasters in the future. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the controversy on the accustomed idea that larger and older firms struggle less than the smaller ones. The research demonstrated that the coronavirus damaged large international businesses in a rather severe manner, jeopardizing their normal functioning. Third, many companies’ inflexibility to the changes powerfully highlights the necessity to be prepared for the disaster on a large scale. Finally, the research proposes the strategy of reducing uncertainty, which involves proactive risk management tactics, and the strategy of coping with uncertainty, implementing flexibility, and adapting to uncertain times.
The results of the research conducted by the article’s authors introduce an effective framework for dealing with such colossal emergencies at the international level. As the research has found, reactive cooperation and reduction of the probability of the business’s negative outcomes is the best strategy to deal with the uncertainty of the company’s future. The South Korean Samsung company successfully used this strategy during the coronavirus pandemic. Samsung was already prepared for a relatively independent production with factories in some countries and was able to adapt to the sudden economic changes by switching to the e-commerce platform. Thus, the company did not deal with overwhelming revenue losses and managed to survive the worst times of the pandemic.
Conclusion
To conclude, the topic of the given research strongly resonates with the current state of international business that has been uniquely influenced by COVID-19. The global organizations have struggled with immense losses in revenues due to the massive lockdown all over the world and the reduced production capacities. The purpose of the given research was to propose a strategy that would reduce the repercussions of global catastrophes for international business. The authors fulfilled this purpose accordingly, introducing the complex strategy of risk and strategic management and addressing some implications that international business managers might face again in the future.
References
Sharma, P., Leung, T. Y., Kingshott, R. P. J., Davcik, N. S., & Cardinal, S. (2020). Managing uncertainty during a global pandemic: An international business perspective. Journal of Business Research, 116. 188-192. Web.