Perspectives of International Business: A Comprehensive Study on Major Business Traits During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Over the years, the subtle increase of international trade has been a fuel to globalisation, not only stimulating the economic growth of the countries, but at the same time being a transit to wide range of opportunities in global market. Inviting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), acquiring a competitive edge in the market globally and other aspects can all be seen as major positive facet of the same. Lately, the epidemic outbreak across the globe has led everyone including the businesses to an unwanted prodigious situation, due to which a lot of curbing steps were taken in order to control the devastating aftereffects of the same. Since the pandemic started, a lot of researchers and academicians have showcased its impact on the international businesses, unemployment and other relevant factors and published providing relevant information. This study thoroughly scrutinizes the existing research works on the rise in unemployment due to blocked cross border trades and mergers & acquisitions in three major sectors viz. hospitality and tourism, retail and aviation. Secondary data have been collected from various sources and a comprehensive review has been done. In addition to that, scenario analysis has been done for the three sectors, with respect to pre and post conditions of international markets. Through the analysis, it is found that mobility (cross-border blockage) restrictions predictably lead to decrease in the economic activities, compromised productivity and delayed dealings of the Multinational Corporations (MNC's) led to huge loss of jobs and rise in unemployment rate. Further, revised import export policies and declined mergers and acquisitions across the borders have occurred that impacted many businesses. The analysis inside out has marked various left out points of research in this area limiting the number of findings thereby. However, the analysis unfolds copious aspects that have been untouched, such as the supply shortage, demand shock, the World Trade Organization (WTO) statistics on global trade and other such aspects as compared to the pre-COVID period these aspects would threaten a greater extent to economy's GDP, jeopardize jobs and also reduce total wage income. Besides relating the findings of the study, further investigation and relevant conclusion are presented for the readers to further analyse the topic in depth. In this regard, a way-forward framework is being proposed for building a sustainable and resilient economy.