International Business Strategies for Next Plc: COVID-19 Challenges

This report, focusing on Next Plc, critically evaluates international business strategies in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It begins with an abstract, introduction, and a detailed literature review exploring the importance of effective international business strategies, the major issues affecting businesses due to COVID-19, and various strategies to mitigate these challenges. The research methodology employs a positivism research philosophy, a quantitative research method, and a random sampling strategy. Data collection involves primary and secondary methods, including questionnaires administered to 100 respondents. The report then presents a data analysis, leading to conclusions and recommendations. The study aims to identify the importance of developing effective international business strategies, determine the significant issues due to COVID-19, and analyze different international business strategies to support dealing with the COVID-19 issues on the global business environment. The report also acknowledges limitations, such as time constraints, that may impact the research outcomes.

Applied Business Project

ABSTRACT
International business strategy is concerned with the plans that help in
guide commercial transaction that taking place among entities in the various
countries. It is a way under which an organisation makes choice regarding
acquiring as well as use the scare resources to accomplish international
goals. This included deciding services and goods which are mainly provided,
market to entered and also dealing competition. Aim of present research is
to evaluate the plan international business strategies in order to effectively
deal with the challenges of the global business environment due to COVID
19. the objectives have been developed on the basis of research aim. In
collecting the information in literature review part, there has been secondary
sources used such as books, magazines, articles, internet sources etc.
Through these sources, researcher achieved all the set objectives within
given period of time. In the research methodology part, positivism research
philosophy, quantitative research method, random research sampling
method used. In order to collection of information from different sources,
there has been primary and secondary method used. For collection of
information from questionnaire in primary method, there have been 100
respondents chosen.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
Overview of Research.................................................................................................................1
Research question.......................................................................................................................1
Research Aim..............................................................................................................................2
Research objective......................................................................................................................2
Limitations of the report.............................................................................................................2
CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................................3
Importance of developing effective international business strategies............3
Major issues due to COVID 19, which have an impact on business and its
operations...............................................................................................................................5
Different international business strategies which will support in dealing
with the COVID- 19 issues on the global business environment........................6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................8
Research philosophy......................................................................................................8
Research approach..............................................................................................................8
Data collection method......................................................................................................9
Sampling strategy.........................................................................................................10
Sample size........................................................................................................................10
Ethical consideration...................................................................................................11
DATA ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................31
RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................................32
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................33

INTRODUCTION
Overview of Research
International business can be described as the organisation which is conducting business
task and operations across the national boundaries. This type of business are combines the
economics, social culture, resources, technology, human recourse and so on in order to
effectively and efficiently conducting the business task (Peterson and et.al, 2020). It is essential
for international business to develop an effective and efficient business strategy in order to
successfully conduct business task as well as to attain desired goals and objective. The research
methodology is adequately evaluated for identifying the different sources of collected data.
Gather information or data is analysed for interpretation. Apart from this different
recommendation has been giving in order to improve the performance of the company.
Research problem
This report is based on Next Plc company. This company is performing a business task in
the retail sector, and it is providing its products and services to a large market area. This is a
multinational company that is providing its products and services to large market area. Due to
Corona virus performance of this company is affected. This will lead to have negative impact on
business operations and influence strategies of company. Next Plc was developed in 1864 and
founder of this company is Joseph Hepworth (About Next, 2020). Headquarter of this company
is located in Enderby, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. This report will include a literature
review in order to analyse the viewpoint of other authors. This research project is developed in
order to identify the problems that are faced by international company due to increase in COVID
19 issues. Due to this, international business strategies are influences, and it will directly impact
over the productivity and performance of the business. COVID 19 lead to influence the strategies
of business as well as affect the purchasing decision of customers.
Research question
 What is the importance of developing effective international business strategies?
 What are the major issues due to COVID 19, which have an impact on business and its
operations?
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 What are the different international business strategies which will support in dealing with
the COVID 19 issues on the global business environment?
Research Aim
To critically evaluate the plan international business strategies in order to effectively deal
with the challenges of the global business environment due to COVID 19. Case study of Next
Plc.
Research objective
 To identify the importance of developing effective international business strategies.
 To determine the significant issues due to COVID 19, which have an impact on business
and its operations.
 To analyse the different international business strategies which will support in dealing
with the COVID 19 issues on the global business environment?
Limitations of the report
There are different limitation that has been determined, which will lead to having an
impact on the overall performance of this research. The major limitation that could impact the
investigation is lack of time duration. There is less time provided to the investigator to conduct
all research practices in a more effective and efficient manner. Due to lack of time researcher
will not be able to perform the different task of research successfully, and it will impact over the
outcome of the research. It is essential for the researcher to develop an effective and robust
strategy in order to deal with the issues or limitation of this research.
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CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
It is one of the important section that provide detailed and theoretical
framework to investigator in order to draw a valid and reliable conclusion.
Mainly, it is consider as an effective summary of previous research that have
been done before on the basis of research topic. One of the main objective of
this section is to gather detailed and depth analysis of research objectives.
Along with this, it is a part of secondary method that help researcher in
evaluating the specified issues and problem. It also contributes in mentoring
a previous work that another one has read, analysed and assimilated that
study in order to take right and valid decision. The main purpose of literature
review is to convey the detailed analysis to the researcher for understanding
the ideas that have been established or used (Cho, 2020). It includes
different sources by which in-depth information is gathers including books,
journals, articles, magazines, newspapers and many more. These are directly
contributes in attaining positive outcomes at the end of the investigation.
Furthermore researcher use previous study on the basis of international
business strategies in order to effectively deal with the challenges of the
global business environment due to COVID-19. In this, different authors give
their view point that support researcher in attaining positive outcomes within
the investigation (Torales and et. al., 2020).
Importance of developing effective international business strategies
According to opinion of Brian Hill (2020) international business strategy
is related to plans which guide the commercial transactions that taking place
among businesses in various countries. It is explained as actions and plans of
private firms rather than the government as to enhanced profit. Most of the
organisations appreciable size that deal with one international partner in
supply chain and well established competition is international. Using the
international business strategy is related to focus on exporting the services
and goods to the foreign markets or importing the resources from different
countries for the domestic use. The successful expansion into new market
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demands that firms adopt the international business strategies which better
fit to needs as well as capabilities. International business consists dealing
with the staff members, governments, foreign markets, customers, business
managers which require to be consider several factors when performing the
business operation at international market like pricing strategy, supply chain
management and competition. To expand the customer base successfully
and enhance profit level by the internationalisation, firms requires to spend
required resources as well as the time to understand opportunities in global
market and also select international business strategies in proper manner.
As the Next plc is a international brand and its financial objective is to
provide the long term returns to the shareholders by combination of the
sustainable development in the earning per share as well as payment of the
cash individuals. This firm conduct its business operations at international
level as to enhance the productivity and gain competitive benefits globally.
On the other hand, when an organisation hires the international staff for new
market then in this case international strategy can assist in diversity as well
as expand business (Crawford and et. al., 2020). An economic globalisation
is process during which the firms expand in to markets to consist global
consumers. In context to this, developing international sales permit an
organisation to enhance factory use and minimum cost of production for firm
as whole because the fixed operating cost are spread over the more units
manufactured. It can be advantageous if an organisation has overbuilt
domestic capacity for enhancing sales related opportunities which do not
materialise. Without international sales possibility, alternative many be
shutting down the plan, laying off labour and selling off the equipments.
Successful international marketing strategy is helpful in bringing regarding
synergistic advantages that strengthen company as whole. Through
developing sales related operations art overseas. Firm many search better
opportunities to save the cost through having manufacturing of goods
completed in to foreign country where the labour cost is minimum (Sohrabi
and et. al., 2020).
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Major issues due to COVID 19, which have an impact on business and its
operations
As per opinion of Naveen Donthu and Anders Gustafsson (2020)
businesses should navigate operational and financial challenges of the
coronavirus while addressing people requirement, suppliers and customers.
In this present time, firms are faced with the overwhelming, uncharted
waters and competing the challenges as they are continuing to navigate
impact of COVID-19 pandemic situation on the business operations. With
COVID-19, changes in the supply chain, market routes and consumer
behaviour are knocking firms off balance (Smith and et. al., 2020).
Responding to pandemic has been underscored leaders requirement in order
to accelerate adoption of the working agile ways and also value chain
transformation in order to help the outmanoeuvre uncertainty. COVID-19
pandemic situation has forced several businesses to be closed that leading
unprecedented commerces disruption in many sectors. Retailers face several
short term challenges like workforce, health and safety, cash flow, supply
chain, marketing and consumer demand. Navigating all these challenge will
not be guarantee promising future. All the function and operations of
company are mainly intended to be prioritise as well as optimize the
spending which will not bring the value in current environment. Other than
this, becoming Intelligent enterprise means shifting from the top- down
decision making, driven through data, empowering teams that guided
through purpose, enabled through cloud for better market speed and
powered through technology (Crick and Crick, 2020). This calls for razing the
rigid structure and also developing porous firm with the modules. On the
other hand, face of COVID-19 Crisis, the leaders have to be act quickly in
order to optimise resilience of company, rebalancing for liquidity and risk
while assessing better opportunities for development coming out of
downturn.
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Different international business strategies which will support in dealing with
the COVID- 19 issues on the global business environment
According to David Springsteen (2020), Number of the Coronavirus
cases are increasing day by day but at this time, organisations are forced to
re- evaluate and innovate way they are mainly operate. The multinational
organisations requires navigate pandemic successfully in context to survive
on country by country basis. Other than this, impact on global economy
many enhance based on extent of the geographic spread of virus. Pandemic
has been already developed negative impact on global economy. In order to
deal with COVID-19, it is necessary for organisation to provide the guidelines
to employees about the health and safety measures in order to deal with
COVID-19 pandemic situation on global business environment (Sharma and
et. al., 2020). Employees should use the sanitizers and mask properly while
working with the other people.
As per the company Next plc is international business venture and
their management team could pursue better decision making to enhance
and measure the effective strategy to implement in their premises for
dealing with COVID-19. By allotting Work From Home facilities to employees,
where they can not take any chances to visit workplace and maintain the
social distancing to avoid the interaction with other work people members.
To provide effective and optimum instructions related to undertaking the
precautions while commencing the working task to wear masks while
communicate with others along with utilise sanitizers for making themselves
safe and secure (Dwivedi and et. al., 2020). There are some proactive
business strategy for Next plc by providing the product and services in online
platform or digital channels to making engage to the customers as well as
services can be served through delivery solutions. Due to COVID-19, it
reduces the demand of product and services where it generates the
unstructured of product design and organisation internal infrastructure.
Through which company need to approach the product development by
implement the price reduction for retention the customers as much as
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company capability. By maintaining healthy relationship with official
business related parties to making them understand for not reliable to pay
vendors and suppliers to giving an assurance that the payment will allotted
them as per the situation settle down.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This refers to the process or procedure that is considered by the
researcher in order to conduct research practices and effectively collect data
successfully. Research methodology can be described as the way or
approach which is used by the investigator to collect data as well as use in to
attain the desired objective of the research. This is a process which will guide
the researcher to perform a research task successfully (Elavarasan and
Pugazhendhi, 2020).
Research philosophy
This is considered as the brief for which is used by a researcher that
will assist in gather and accumulate data for getting wanted result of the
examination. This is significant and huge for giving direction to the analyst
so as to lead research exercises in right and precise way. Research
philosophy is majorly classified into two parts, that is positivism and
interpretivism (Fegert and et. al., 2019). Both of these are effective
philosophy which will help in successfully performing the research practices.
In this investigation, the interpretivism research philosophy has been used as
it is based on the qualitative method and helpful in providing the detailed
analysis about the specific subject area.
Research approach
 Qualitative approach – Qualitative investigation approach is
significant for collecting in-depth data and information. This can be
defined as the examination where inside and out, and precise data is
gathered (Guan, Deng and Zhou, 2020).
 Quantitative approach – This approach of data collection is defining
as the efficient methodology of gathering and examining data. A
quantitative approach will lead to providing data in a more systematic
manner. This type of data can be represented in the form of a number
of statistical information in order to analyse the data and make a
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decision effectively. In this examination, the scientist will have the
option to gather and speak to information in the numerical structure.
This kind of information is straightforward as help in quick dynamic (He
and Harris, 2020).
In conducting present investigation, there has been qualitative research
methodology used. The main reason behind using this method is that it
helps in provide the theoretical information and the valid outcomes
regarding specific subject area. The subjective examination is essential
for responding to how and why the question identified with the
exploration and breaking down collected data through appropriate data.
Data collection method
There are a number of sources which are significant for collecting as well
as analysing the data in order to successfully attain the outcome of the
research. The data collection process is one of the essential parts of the
researcher as it will lead to having a major impact on the decision taken by
the researcher regarding the investigation topic or problem. Investigator can
collect information for primary and secondary sources (Holmes and et. al.,
2020). Both of these methods of data collection is mention below –
 Primary data collection – This type of data collection is referred to
as one of the methods of gathering and assembling information. The
investigator who collected information form primary data is referred to
as proprietor of the information as it is gathering totally new
information. Primary data collection helps in gathering unique and
original data which is never utilised. There are different sources,
however, which exploration could assemble primary information that is
questionnaires, survey, observation, experiments and many more. This
strategy of collecting data for research is supportive of gathering more
real or proper information (Ivanov, 2020). Primary data collection will
help in resolving the issues by providing right and accurate information
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