instance the development of technology PDF

Introduction
According to Ristovska and Ristovska (2014), global changes, for instance the development of
technology, require business companies to struggle for its survival. Hence, resulting in the need to
change strategies and expand to different markets outside the borders of the home country. Factors
such as demand for cheaper resources, limited market as well as competitive pressure could force
business leaders to consider alternative measures in order to increase competitive advantage and the
entrance on global markets, rather than just focusing on traditional targets. As businesses go
international, the need for strategic management becomes crucial as these businesses have to keep
track of the rising diversified operations in a changing global environment. According to Arabinda
(2018), many multinational companies (MNCs) mentioned that strategic planning plays a huge role
in determining the success of a business and efforts were conducted in both the home country and
the subsidiaries. A study found out that 70% of the 56 American MNC subsidiaries located in Asia
as well as Latin America had comprehensive 5 to 10 year plans and the planning systems
implemented by the manufacturing companies in Australia are similar to those of U.S
manufacturing companies (Arabinda, 2018). Arabinda (2018) further stated that organizations
which develop international strategies and engage in international business tend to have valuable
core competencies which are not possessed by competitors from the host country and will face
minimal pressures for local responsiveness. Large MNCs like McDonald’s and Microsoft have been
successful due to strategic management. Strategy such as changes in offering on a localised level
could lead to an increase in the company’s overall cost structure and also increasing the likelihood
of the goods and services being responsive towards the local needs, therefore leading to success
(Arabinda, 2018).
Azzam (2018) supported the statement above by stating the importance of the understanding
regarding how the markets and competitors gain different opportunities by determining the ultimate
strategy to achieve competitive advantage and cope with the current conditions. Business leaders
and managers tend to look out for new strategies and solutions to prevent the risks associated with
the fast changing factors within the external business environment. The impact caused by the
external environment could complicate the process of business leaders and managers making
effective decisions. However, global changes will not only bring challenges, some changes could
raise new opportunities for the businesses. Stable development is possible to be achieved through
competent strategic management by considering the potential risks and methods to overcome the
risks as well as to achieve the desired goals of the company (Bondarenko et al., 2017). Firstly, a
general view of how global disruptions could affect international businesses and their strategies will
be explained. Next, the example of the first disruption which is the COVID19 pandemic will be
focused and discussed in terms of how it will affect the international businesses, along with 2 real
life industries examples that were negatively affected by the pandemic. Another example of
disruption which is technological advancement will be highlighted next and its impact on
international businesses strategies, along with 1 real life industries examples that were positively
affected by the change. Lastly, the essay will end with a conclusion statement.

Main Content
Global disruptions affects business strategies
According to Nyu and Nilssen (2020), global disruption usually comes as a shock to all sorts of
businesses and could heavily affect international trade. The consequences of disruptive events will
result in uncertainties as well as radical changes to businesses well-established strategies. These
global disruptions could lead to some devastating consequences or financial losses that lasted for a
long period of time for companies even after the event occurred. Moreover, the success of
businesses in the face of such disruptions does vary across all markets, industries and companies.
Companies are often caught unprepared when disruption occurs and won't be able to react rapidly
or effectively. Nyu and Nilssen (2020) further added that some businesses might struggle to survive
or even fail, however other businesses are able to overcome the difficulties by breaking down old
patterns and taking advantage of new opportunities. Consequently, it is important for managers or
business leaders to search for a new source of competitive advantage by responding to the moment
of change in a quick manner.
Md. Tarek et al. (2020) pointed out several strategies that have been formulated and implemented in
order to manage a business’s vulnerability to disruptions. Strategies such as inventory stockpiling,
diversification of supplies are effective strategies to manage disruption risk. Emergency sourcing,
buffer inventory, reserve capacity and also collaborative strategies like quality information sharing
and flexibility might help the companies with disruption management. Proper positioning of
resources as well as infrastructure are also needed, along with disruption orientation to ensure
businesses’ continuity and their ability to manage disruptions efficiently, so that a supply chain will
be made to be more resilient.
COVID19 bring challenges
According to Earl (2021), contemporary global disruption such as the COVID19 pandemic could
raise the overall complexity of the global environment, with respect to both firms’ domestic and
international activities. Effects of COVID19 pandemic like restrictions on trade and travel,
economic disruption, as well as political volatility have resulted in various global challenges for the
transaction of international businesses, hence forcing firms ranging from large MNEs to SMEs to
adapt. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how global disruptions such as this pandemic could
affect the strategies associated with international business.
Haydon and Kumar (2020) stated that this pandemic placed huge negative impacts on supply
chains and disrupted many industries around the world. The authors analyzed the top 5 industries
that were most impacted by COVID-19, shown in a graph from (Appendix 1) and a table from
(Appendix 2). Auto parts & equipment and leisure facilities were in the top 5 most impacted
industries, both demonstrating similar trends. These 2 industries will be highlighted in this essay.
According to Gursoy and Chi (2020), the pandemic has confronted the hospitality industry with an
unprecedented challenge. Due to the implementation of lockdowns, social distancing and mobility
restrictions, there are temporary closure of hospitality businesses and a significant reduction in
terms of the demand for businesses that were allowed to operate. Hence, resulted in sharp fall in
terms of hotel occupancies as well as revenues. Hospitality businesses are forced to make
substantial changes to their operations and strategies in the COVID-19 business environment, to
ensure health and safety of people and the longevity of businesses.

As for the automotive industry, Pato and Herczeg (2020) mentioned that due to the temporal
shutdowns of production in various factories caused by the pandemic, businesses faced massive
difficulties in numerous supply chain processes. Logistic costs were raised, transport options were
reduced and led to material shortages as well as demand fluctuations both in short term and long
term which caused immense problems. Therefore, businesses have to develop strategies to address
the supply chain issues and building up sufficient safety stocks as well as closely cooperating with
partners is important in order to sustain its operations.
Real life examples of hospitality industry and automotive industry being affected by
COVID19
Rodriguez-Anton and Alonso-Almeida (2020) discussed the impacts brought by COVID-19 and
how it affects the hospitality industry in Spain. Tourism is known as the main sector of Spain’s
economy, hence it is essential to develop an adequate recovery strategy that is geared towards this
particular sector and its companies. Referring to (Appendix 3), UNWTO World Tourism Barometer
(2020) indicated that international tourist arrivals in the world fell by 57%. Plus, in the first 7
months of 2020, there was a huge reduction in terms of international tourist arrivals, amounting to a
fall of 72.43% or more than 34.8 million tourists. This great reduction in international tourism
arrivals resulted in a sharp contraction in hotel demand in Spain, hence the need for Spain to adopt
strategies to lessen the burden caused by the pandemic to the hospitality industry.
To summarize, Rodriguez-Anton and Alonso-Almeida (2020) pointed out the main response
strategies are heavily focused on cost reduction, push and relaunch local market, price reduction,
preparation of contingency plans and human resource policies. Furthermore, the authors added that
one of the response strategies implemented by the hotel businesses has been the offer of rooms for
purposes other than tourism accommodation, in other words, medicalising some hotels during the
pandemic. New strategies like the redirection of hotel marketing, sales programmes and
promotional packages could help the hospitality industry to ease the severe impact caused by the
pandemic. Nevertheless, the hospitality industry should focus on building trusts and relationships
with tourists, reinforcing their brands and businesses should developing effective action
programmes against the pandemic.
Moving on to the area of the automotive industry, Pato and Herczeg (2020) stated that as more
regions were placed in quarantine, transportation in those areas ceased and options were gradually
decreased. Automotive components were stuck in locked cities and the remaining freight capacities
were utilized for the need of medical equipment instead, which had the highest priority. Air freight
prices and transport times were raised significantly over time, and all of these factors caused the
demand to fluctuate and the uncertainties had put on huge effects in relation to the supply chains.
According to Kufelova and Ravoka (2020), a study was conducted about the automotive industry in
the Slovak republic being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Slovak economy was being
affected by the situation faced in the automotive industry, as Volkswagen Slovakia had announced
the closing of its operations in Bratislava and in the rest of European cities. Most of the car
production was suspended by the car manufacturers, causing the Slovak economy to experience a
downfall, as the automotive industry acted as a pillar towards the country’s economy. The closure
was a response due to the supply chain constraints and also due to the fall in demand for vehicles.
Therefore, there is a need to take measures that could economically improve public administration
and to create more favorable conditions for the business entities in Slovakia. Kufelova and Ravoka

(2020) further mentioned that measures such as tax reduction and saving in public administration
could be implemented to help the automotive industry in coping with the disruption. Funding
teaching and research at universities of technology should also be focused to adopt the principles of
financial policy of public administration that could create financial reserves in addition to debt
reduction.
Rapidly changing technology brings opportunities
According to Dileep et. al (2019), it was explained how technology disruption will affect
businesses’ strategies and also performance. Improvement in a company’s innovation capacity is
required to adapt to the advanced technological systems and also to perform better than the
competitors. The existence of such competitive pressure among different companies is increasing
globally, hence resulting in a reduced life cycle of technologies and products, and placing
companies to a compelling proposition of innovation. Dileep et. al (2019) also mentioned that the
contextual imbalances due to technological disruption can be neutralized through competence
intervention, thus businesses should make efforts in managing and improving the firm’s capacity of
innovation. Nyu and Nilssen (2020) supported the statement above by stating that due to the rapid
development of technology, the survival of the businesses rely on their ability to cope with digital
disruption. An effective strategy is needed to maintain the relationship between the business with
key customers and at the same time allows strategic flexibility to deal with the issues brought by the
disruption.
According to Gregurec et. al (2021), many SMEs had to search for opportunities and develop new
strategies in order to deliver remote operations by digitizing business activities. This implies that
SMEs had to switch to virtual operations in order to sustain performance as well as
competitiveness. For instance, the implementation of digitalization, robotization or formation of
smart businesses as new digital technologies can be considered as a tool for success. Gregurec et. al
(2021) also stated that social media platforms and mobile technologies were often utilized as a tool
for the transformation of channels of communication and service delivery. Therefore, by building
user-friendly technologies along with short implementation periods and which are oriented towards
enabling desired value propositions could help SMEs to respond to disruptions faster and in an
effective way.
Real life example of education industry being affected by technology advancement
According to Wortley and Lai (2017), the study proved that technology disruption could directly
affect the education industry. Prior to modern digital communication technologies, the form of
knowledge transfer was highly dependent on human capabilities, whereby student’s ability to access
information and knowledge was restricted in time and space by the resources available to them such
as libraries, local experts and fellow students. However, the introduction of the Internet represents a
quantum shift in student empowerment to access all sorts of information and knowledge without
restrictions, allowing students to access global information and also the ability to publish
information globally. Wortley and Lai (2017) further mentioned that a wide range of technologies
and applications designed for non-education sectors has been rapidly maturing, whereby the
repurposing of these technologies has resulted in different education practices and strategies, further
leading to growth in the education industry. As these technologies became more affordable and
accessible to mass populations, the technologies could empower individuals to “self-direct” in their
learning activities, quickly acquire knowledge and skills and be less reliant on teachers or experts.

Therefore, in this age of robotics and artificial intelligence, teachers will need to adopt changes in
terms of their role as mentors and develop strategies that could help the learning of students more
effectively.
Embee (n.d.). supported the statement by stating that digital disruption has actually enabled
educational institutes to restructure the learning processes, thus making it more accessible and
affordable to students. A study has found that 80% of university students have agreed that digital
capabilities is an important factor for them to decide on university choices. 70% of students prefer
their schools to utilize more digital tools, and 81% of students tend to look for integration of
technology into the classroom experience, online access to materials and online availability of
classes. Furthermore, the use of audiovisual assets along with collaborative and teamwork solutions
played a huge role in helping learners to proactively participate in projects. Embee is a recognized
leading technology partner in India which delivers digital transformation to customers and be more
connected and productive.
Conclusion
This essay may conclude that it is relatively crucial for businesses to apply the most effective
strategy through proper strategic marketing and management to enter a new market. However, to
make a wise decision and invest outside of a country’s own borders is a complex and
comprehensive process. The process can be achieved through several stages and approaches that
contain a long- term comprehensive analysis and scanning of newly elected investment locations. In
this essay, the importance of strategic management is also highlighted, for managers when engaging
in international businesses. The business world is constantly changing and unpredictable, there will
be challenges that businesses have to face due to global disruptions. A good and effective strategy is
needed for a business to survive and grow during the occurrence of these global disruptions.
Two examples of global disruption were mentioned in the discussion above, which are the
COVID-19 pandemic and the technological advancements respectively. Disruptions such as the
covid 19 pandemic bring challenges to many industries, forcing managers to change strategies in
order to adapt. For instance, how the companies in the hospitality industry in Spain implement new
strategies such as the redirection of hotel marketing to ease the severe impact caused by the
pandemic, and also the example of how COVID19 affects the automotive industries that can be
seen clearly in Slovakia. Besides, global disruptions such as technological advancements could also
influence business strategies.Unlike Covid19, technological advancement could actually affect
businesses in a positive way and might bring opportunities to some industries if the managers did
take advantage of the opportunity and implemented effective strategies that could benefit their
businesses. For instance, how technology disruption could benefit the education industry that was
mentioned above. This essay has clearly proved that it is necessary for businesses to stimulate and
improve their strategic management which could allow new opportunities to counteract risks
brought by disruptions.
(2672 words)

Appendix
Appendix 1
Reference : Haydon, D. & Kumar, N. (2020). Industries Most and Least Impacted by COVID-19
from a Probability of Default Perspective- September 2020 Update. S&P Global Market
Intelligence. Retrieved from
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/industries-most-and-least-impa
cted-by-covid19-from-a-probability-of-default-perspective-september-2020-update
Appendix 2
Reference: Haydon, D. & Kumar, N. (2020). Industries Most and Least Impacted by COVID-19
from a Probability of Default Perspective- September 2020 Update. S&P Global Market
Intelligence. Retrieved from

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/industries-most-and-least-impa
cted-by-covid19-from-a-probability-of-default-perspective-september-2020-update
Appendix 3
Reference: Rodriguez-Anton, J. M. & Alonso-Almeida, M. M. (2020). COVID-19 Impacts and
Recovery Strategies: The Case of the Hospitality Industry in Spain. Sustainability 2020. Pp. 1-17.
Doi: 10.3390/su12208599

Reference list
Arabinda, B. (2018). International Business Strategy. Strategic Management. Pdf. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322789850_International_Business_Strategy
Azzam, A. Abou-Moghli. (2018). Significance of Strategic Management in the Development of
International Business- A Visionary Approach. International Journal of Business Administration.
Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 71-75. Doi: 10.5430/ijba.v9n5p71.
Bondarenko, T. G., Isaeva, E. A., Orekhov, S. A. & Soltakhanov, A. U. (2017). Optimization of the
Company Strategic Management System in the Context of Economic Instability. European
Research Studies. Vol. 20, No. 2. Pp. 3.
Dileep, K. M., Chung, J. F. & Normala, S. G. (2019). Technological Disruption and Business
Performance in SMEs. Religacion. Vol. 4, No. 7, pp.130-138. ISSN: 2477-9083
Earl, A. (2021). International Business in Times of Global Disruptions. Review of International
Business and Strategy. Emerald Publishing pdf. Retrieved from
https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ribs/international-business-times-global-disruptio
n
Embee (n.d.). 6 Industries That Are Most Vulnerable to Digital Disruptions. Retrieved from
https://embee.co.in/blog/6-industries-most-vulnerable-to-digital-disruption/
Gregurec, I., Tomicic Furjan, M. & Tomicic-Pupek, K. (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 on
Sustainable Business Models in SMEs. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1098. Doi: 10.3390/su13031098.
Gursoy, D. & Chi, C. G. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry: review of
the current situations and a research agenda. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. Vol.
29, No. 5. Pp. 527-529. Doi: 10.1080/19368623.2020.1788231.
Haydon, D. & Kumar, N. (2020). Industries Most and Least Impacted by COVID-19 from a
Probability of Default Perspective- September 2020 Update. S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Retrieved from
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/industries-most-and-least-impa
cted-by-covid19-from-a-probability-of-default-perspective-september-2020-update
Kufelova, I. & Ravoka, M. (2020). Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the automotive industry in
Slovakia and selected countries. Current Problems of the Corporate Sector 2020. Doi:
10.1051/shsconf/20208301040.
Md. Tarek, C., Aditi, S., Sanjoy, K. P. & Md. Abdul, M. (2020). A case study on strategies to deal
with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in the food and beverage industry. Operations
Management Research. Doi: 10.1007/s12063-020-00166-9.
Nyu, V. & Nilssen, F. (2020). Strategies for Coping with Global Disruptions: Diversify, Transform,
Disengage, or Bypass ?. Rutgers Business Review. Vol. 5., No. 3. Pp.384-404.
Pato, B. Sz. G. & Herczeg, M. (2020). The effect of the COVID-19 on the automotive supply
chains. Sciendo. Vol. 65, No. 2. Pp. 1-11. Doi: 10.2478/subboec-2020-0006.

Ristovska, K. & Ristovska, A. (2014). The Impact of Globalization on the Business. Economic
Analysis. Vol. 47, No. 3-4, pp. 83-89.
Rodriguez-Anton, J. M. & Alonso-Almeida, M. M. (2020). COVID-19 Impacts and Recovery
Strategies: The Case of the Hospitality Industry in Spain. Sustainability 2020. Pp. 1-17. Doi:
10.3390/su12208599.
UNWTO. (2020). World Tourism Barometer. Retrieved from
https://webunwto.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-05/Barometer%20-%20May%20
2020%20-%20Short.pdf
Wortley, D. J & Lai, Dr. P. C. (2017). The Impact of Disruptive Enabling Technologies on Creative
Education. Pdf. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314595043_The_Impact_of_Disruptive_Enabling_Techno
logies_on_Creative_Education