scholarly journals The Impacts of COVID-19 on Business Practice: Some Key Insights

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 366-376
Author(s):  
Rajeev Sooreea ◽  
Brinda Sooreea

This paper provides an overview of some of the key economic impacts of COVID-19 on business practice, especially in the U.S. In particular, we synthesize some of the latest research, findings and developments from various academic literature and business sources to provide a managerial perspective of the effects of this pandemic. In addition, we show some characteristics of the so-called “new normal” and what kind of innovative business opportunities could arise as a result of the fundamental changes in the global economy. We conclude by highlighting how some emerging countries like India could tap into such opportunities despite the dire global situation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Susan M. Albring ◽  
Randal J. Elder ◽  
Mitchell A. Franklin

ABSTRACT The first tax inversion in 1983 was followed by small waves of subsequent inversion activity, including two inversions completed by Transocean. Significant media and political attention focused on transactions made by U.S. multinational corporations that were primarily designed to reduce U.S. corporate income taxes. As a result, the U.S. government took several actions to limit inversion activity. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) significantly lowered U.S. corporate tax rates and one expected impact of TCJA is a reduction of inversion activity. Students use the Transocean inversions to understand the reasons why companies complete a tax inversion and how the U.S. tax code affects inversion activity. Students also learn about the structure of inversion transactions and how they have changed over time as the U.S. government attempted to limit them. Students also assess the tax and economic impacts of inversion transactions to evaluate tax policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 474
Author(s):  
Ulrika Gunnarsson-Östling

A parking space is the beginning and the end of every car journey. Policies aimed at parking spaces are, thus, an effective way of affecting car travel. Policies regarding parking typically mean setting minimum parking requirements to meet the peak demand for parking. However, in several Swedish cities, as well as around Europe, attempts are made to lower the number of parking places. One way is to build homes without parking places for cars and pilot projects with zero-parking have started to materialize. This paper looks into the academic literature in the field of design and architecture to see how parking issues are dealt with. It also looks into ongoing practice by studying three pilot projects in Sweden that challenge the dominant parking norm by planning and building for a new normal—mobility convenience and zero parking. Both the literature and the cases point to little knowledge in the field. However, high demands on “creative mobility solutions” are placed on housing projects without parking places for cars. Even if the effects of sustainability are still unknown, zero parking pilot projects can narrate the possibility of another future—a future with mobility convenience instead of parking convenience.


2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2020-056145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ollie Ganz ◽  
Mary Hrywna ◽  
Kevin R J Schroth ◽  
Cristine D Delnevo

In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products, although initially this only included cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. In 2016, the deeming rule extended regulatory authority to include all tobacco products, including cigars. The deeming rule prohibited the introduction of new tobacco products into the marketplace without proper marketing authorisation and laid out pathways for tobacco companies to follow. The deeming rule should have frozen the cigar marketplace in 2016. In this paper, we describe how the cigarillo marketplace, nevertheless, continues to diversify with new brands, flavors, styles and packaging sizes entering the market regularly. As an example, we highlight recent promotional efforts by Swedish Match North America (Swedish Match) for their popular cigarillo brands, including White Owl, Night Owl and Garcia y Vega’s Game brand. We argue that ambiguities in the TCA make it unclear whether Swedish Match’s seemingly new cigarillos fit the definition of new tobacco products and, if so, whether they are on the market legally. Swedish Match and other cigarillo companies may be taking advantage of these ambiguities to promote a variety of cigarillo flavors and styles in innovative ways. Given that cigars are combustible tobacco products that pose many of the same risks as cigarettes, this business practice raises significant concerns regarding the protection of public health, particularly among young people.


2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 735-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamel K. Donnor

Background By a 5–4 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 declared that voluntary public school integration programs were unconstitutional. Citing the prospective harm that students and their families might incur from being denied admission to the high school of their choice, the Supreme Court declared that the plaintiffs, Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS), had a valid claim of injury by asserting a interest in not being forced to compete for seats at certain high schools in a system that uses race as a deciding factor in many of its admissions decisions. Purpose The goal of the article is to discuss how conceptions of harm and fairness as articulated in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 privilege the self-interests of White students and families over the educational needs of students of color. Research Design This article is a document analysis. Conclusions By referencing the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954 (Brown I) to buttress its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that programmatic efforts to ensure students of color access to quality learning environments are inherently ominous. The dilemma moving forward for policy makers and scholars concerned with the educational advancement of students of color is not to develop new ways to integrate America's public schools or reconcile the gaps in the Supreme Court's logic, but rather to craft programs and policies for students of color around the human development and workforce needs of the global economy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Aoran Peng ◽  
Jessica Menold ◽  
Scarlett Miller

Abstract There has been a plethora of design theory and methodology research conducted to answer important questions centered around how ideas are developed and translated into successful products. Understanding this is vital because of the role creativity and innovation have in long-term economic success. However, most of this research have focused on U.S. samples, leaving to question if differences exist across cultural borders. Answering this question is key to supporting a successful global economy. The current work provides a first step at answering this question by examining similarities and differences in concept generation and screening practices between students in an emerging market, Morocco, and those in a more established market, the U.S during a design thinking workshop. Our results show that while students in the U.S. sample produced more ideas than the Moroccan sample, there was no difference in the perceived quality of ideas generated (idea goodness). In addition, while U.S. women were found to produce more ideas than U.S. men, there were no gender effects for students in the Moroccan sample. Finally, the results show that ideas with low goodness had a higher probability of passing concept screening if it was evaluated by its owner regardless of the population studied – identifying the potential impact of ownership bias across cultures. As a whole, these results suggest that key aspects of design theory and methodology research may in fact translate across cultures but also identified key areas for further investigation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (256) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Vargas ◽  
Daniela Hess

Using data from 1980-2017, this paper estimates a Global VAR (GVAR) model taylored for the Caribbean region which includes its major trading partners, representing altogether around 60 percent of the global economy. We provide stilyzed facts of the main interrelations between the Caribbean region and the rest of the world, and then we quantify the impact of external shocks on Caribbean countries through the application of two case studies: i) a change in the international price of oil, and ii) an increase in the U.S. GDP. We confirmed that Caribbean countries are highly exposed to external factors, and that a fall in oil prices and an increase in the U.S. GDP have a positive and large impact on most of them after controlling for financial variables, exchange rate fluctuations and overall price changes. The results from the model help to disentangle effects from various channels that interact at the same time, such as flows of tourists, trade of goods, and changes in economic conditions in the largest economies of the globe.


Author(s):  
I. Danilin

The “technological war” between the United States and China that started in 2017–2018 raises a number of questions about the future role of technological development as a factor in relations between superpowers. Analysis shows that for the United States this conflict is caused by changing balance of risks and benefits of the liberal model of globalization due to the rise of China`s power and growing geopolitical tensions between the two nations. In this context, emerging, especially digital, technologies appear to be a new battlefield between superpowers. Within the realist framework, actors consider emerging technologies as a key factor for strengthening their global postures. This, among other things, contributes to securitized technological agenda and strengthens its geopolitical dimension. Neo-technonationalism has become the platform that integrates different processes and goals into new U.S. policy. Although historically neo-technonationalism took its roots in Asia, the evolving market situation prompted the United States to rethink existing approaches and to upgrade the techno-nationalist dimension of its policy. Considering similar policies of China and the EU (i. e. the European digital sovereignty policy), this trend shapes new realities of technological “blocs”, the struggle for expansion of technological platforms, and technological conflicts. Taking into account prospective development needs of the global economy and future specification of mutual interest areas, as new digital technologies mature, the ground for normalizing the dialogue between the superpowers will emerge. However, at least in the U.S.–China case, this issue will be complicated by geopolitical contradictions that leave little room for any serious compromise.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-520
Author(s):  
Charles E. Ziegler

Given America’s leading position in the global economy, the U.S. government has frequently leveraged that power to punish “rogue states”, discourage nuclear proliferation, promote democratization, and create pressure for regime change. Washington relied on economic incentives in relations with Russia after 1991, but since 2012 the United States has utilized a broad range of economic sanctions against Russian side, leading to a significant deterioration in what was already a troubled relationship. In contrast to earlier comprehensive sanctions like those imposed on Iraq and Haiti, the U.S. is now crafting “smart” or targeted sanctions designed to exert maximum pressure on selected Russian elites and firms. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of these measures on changing Russian behavior, the author explores the neglected domestic dimension of the U.S. sanctions process to improve understanding of U.S. foreign policy. This article draws on primary sources in the form of Congressional legislation, executive orders, and official statements to analyze U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia, and develops three brief case studies - the Magnitsky Act, post-Ukraine sanctions, and the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act - to explicate the main issues and actors driving U.S. sanctions. The author argues that domestic factors, including Congressional pressures and interest group activity, are critical to understanding U.S. sanctions regimes. While President Donald Trump has frequently resisted congressionally imposed sanctions, expectations for a more conciliatory approach towards Russia under the Trump administration have not materialized.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Langill

It is often said that we are living in the "age of globalization." This research questions what is meant by this statement. The inquiry is divided into two areas of research. The first part is a review of the academic literature on globalization. Globalization was found to be a term used across a wide variety of disciplines. However, there is no consensus between the disciplines on what exactly the term encompasses. This led to the second area of research: Investigation of the teaching of globalization at Queen's University. For the scope of the research, undergraduate Commerce and Global Development Studies students were chosen. Students from either discipline filled out a survey on globalization and how it is taught at Queen'sUniversity. The results strongly indicated that the students in Commerce and Global Development Studies had very difference conceptions of globalization and were taught about it very differently. The larger implications for what the research findings suggest are discussed University and beyond, while also acknowledging the limitations of the scale of the research. The inquiry concludes with suggestions for moving forward, including further research and alterations to the teaching of globalization at Queen's.


FEDS Notes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2998) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Bertaut ◽  
◽  
Bastian von Beschwitz ◽  
Stephanie Curcuru ◽  
◽  
...  

For most of the last century, the preeminent role of the U.S. dollar in the global economy has been supported by the size and strength of the U.S. economy, its stability and openness to trade and capital flows, and strong property rights and the rule of law. As a result, the depth and liquidity of U.S. financial markets is unmatched, and there is a large supply of extremely safe dollar-denominated assets.


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