مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد بلایا و تجارت بین المللی – الزویر 2023

Abstract

Disasters – natural or manmade – are on the rise with far-reaching implications for international business (IB) actors and transactions. While the Covid-19 pandemic has generated much academic interest for its impact on business in general, little effort has been made to consolidate the fragmented research on disasters more broadly in the field of international business. Therefore, it is important and urgent to consolidate the existing knowledge to provide a solid basis for future research. We systematically review 132 articles published between 1991 and 2022 and critically evaluate the nascent but rapidly growing literature at the intersection of disasters and IB. Our examination of the different types of disasters (natural and manmade) shows two separate streams: (1) a dominant MNE-centric stream of strategic IB research which regards disaster as an exogenous shock impacting MNE strategies, responses, and resilience, and (2) an emergent stream which places disaster as a more central, embedded phenomenon of investigation impacted by MNEs and other global actors. Our systematic review highlights the gaps in this literature and concludes with a discussion of the intersection of IB-disasters in relation to the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to suggest directions for future research.

Introduction

Disaster impact and frequency have tripled over the last fifty years (Al Adem et al., 2018; Thomas & López, 2015) with devasting effects on people and environments worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic has become one of the most severe exogenous shocks to political, economic, and social stability in modern history (Alonso et al., 2021; Baker & Judge, 2020). Other recent devastating natural disasters, including floodings, hurricanes, wildfires, and draughts, many of which are climate-related, have caused a diaspora of people, illness, and death throughout the world. As of this writing, the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as other recent manmade disasters, including sabotage, terrorism, and industrial disasters, continue to cause widespread destruction and distress wherever they occur.

Both manmade and natural disasters have a significant impact on International Business (IB). For instance, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America caused significant economic damage in the immediate aftermath, rippling through global financial markets (e.g., Czinkota et al., 2010). Airlines and insurance companies took the hardest immediate hit, and U.S. stock markets initially fell more than 10% in the days after (Davis, 2022). The World Investment Report 2021 shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2020 by 35%. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, oil production and refining were shut down for weeks affecting global oil prices (e.g., Byard et al., 2007). The volcanic eruptions in Iceland in 2010 grounded flights in Europe and beyond for weeks resulting in major disruptions to supply chains as well as business and tourist travels. Wildfires, flooding, and manmade disasters such as wars continue to wreak havoc on IB transactions, with the Ukraine crisis a stark reminder. These examples provide strong evidence of the massive effects of disasters on both national and global economies, and IB more generally.

Conclusion

Our review article took stock of the state-of-the-art of IB-disasters research and provided examples and guidance for future IB scholars in this embryonic cross-field. Our categorization into manmade versus natural disasters illustrated the differential impact of a variety of disasters on IB actors. We concluded that most existing research in this field is treating disasters as exogenous shocks and focus primarily on disaster management from an MNE-centric perspective. Yet a more inclusive view of disaster embeddedness expands the definition of IB to encompass a broader scope and set of actors that engage in cross-border multidisciplinary activities to address grand challenges, such as the 17 SDGs. Hence, to conclude we call for IB researchers to focus on how disasters – natural and manmade – are driving (or exacerbating) many of the grand challenges facing society, and what critical role(s) IB actors can play as intermediaries to help accomplish SDGs. We believe that the intersection of IB and disasters opens many exciting new avenues for research that have hitherto been neglected. Such a research agenda will likely push the boundaries of the firm and its place in local and international communities and facilitate cross-disciplinary research to help build a better world.