International Business Assignment Sample
Essay 3
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Introduction
The trend regarding population demographic is characterized by a growing divergence across different nations and several regions. The growth, decline, ageing as well as urbanization and migration affect mostly all the aspects of development that are prevalent within the global and national development goals. It may be taken as an example that the aspect of an ageing population is a reflection of improvements concerning the long-term prospect of the development of the economy and society (Rofman and Apella, 2020). The aspect of population dynamics is also known for consumption, employment, production, distribution of income and more. It needs to be mentioned that the concept of population dynamics does not only create challenges and provides some important opportunities too for acquiring a more sustainable growth. It may be taken as an example that the benefits associated with the transition of demographic along with migration and urbanization do not materialize by default as the challenges or opportunities brought in by population dynamics depend extensively on the policies that are in place as well. Therefore, in this essay, the concept of demand and opportunities and the way these relate to the changing population dynamics and address the field of environmental sustainability will be discussed critically.
- Evaluating the way demand and opportunities are associated with the changing population
Demography is concerned with the aspects such as distribution, size, structure, and trends that evaluate over time along with the causes and consequences of change. The requirement of demography is owing to the planning of a city, programs of the government, along with expenditures, disaster management and more. There are several components associated with the change in population that in return makes an impact on the demand and opportunity too, such as birth, death, migration and more. It needs to be mentioned that certain implications are also related to the change in population as well, such as a lower rate of death and birth increase in the population of people over the age of 65 years and a decline in the percentage of the young population. However, the age structure in changing populations has been considered to shape the trajectory regarding development in several countries and has been bringing challenges along with opportunities too (Cruz and Ahmed, 2018).
It also leaves a negative impact on the socio-economic structure of the society and creates conflicts over the resources that are known to be scarce along with the shortage of energy and other natural resources too. If the present trends concerning the impact associated with natural resources continue to persist, then it will become difficult to meet the objectives of the Paris agreement, including the loss of biodiversity will also be a concern (Oberle et al., 2019). The advancement of capitalism, along with affecting the demographic aspect of the underdeveloped nations, has made a significant influence on the economic and geographic regions of the countries too (Susman et al., 2019). Developed countries, on the contrary, do not contribute as much to the growth of population, however, these nations cause a significant ecological disruption caused by the unnecessary and wasteful consumption, the repercussion of which is detrimental to both the developed and developing nations.
Figure 1: Different problems related to capitalism
(Source: Susman et al., 2019)
The transition of demographics has facilitated the economy to convert a substantial portion of the gains from the concept of accumulation of factors to technological advancement into the growth of per capita income. It has also improved labour productivity and the process of growth via several channels, such as the reduction in population growth reducing the aspect of increased stocks of capital and infrastructure which has further increased the amount of per capita resources. The shift in the growth rate of population and age structure ultimately influences all aspects of the macroeconomy, including the productive capacity of the economy, the composition regarding the demand of consumers, investment rates and its distribution amongst different economic sectors and more (Denton and Spencer, 2019). Following that, the reduction concerning the fertility rates has permitted the resources to be reallocated from the number of children toward the quality which has further enhanced the formation of human capital and productivity of labour.
Lastly, the decline seen in the fertility rates has impacted the aspect of the age distribution of the population, which has temporarily increased the fraction concerning the force of labour within the population and thereafter, automatically improved per capita productivity. According to research, developing countries, such as Pakistan will continue to face difficulties if the challenges concerning population are not addressed effectively and it will restrict the nation from achieving a superior rank on the Human Development Index (UNDP, 2019). Besides that, the change in population, especially ageing demographics leaves an impact on the level of consumption as well, since a prominent shift becomes evident in terms of different events in people’s life cycle. Marriage, ownership of the home, education, having children along with the distribution of wealth is some of the changes that become quite evident as well.
Figure 2: Human Development Index
(Source: UNDP, 2019)
It has come to light that older consumers have an attitude that is related to the aversion to risk when it comes to acquiring or utilizing different types of financial services in many developed countries. However, many have argued that the population growth has remained and will consistently be challenging as more people will end up using the finite resources that exist in the world which in return will reduce the potential growth in the long run (Peterson, 2017). It is also stated that since the population growth rate has started to decrease in recent times the assumption that natural resources and food will get exhausted by a larger demographic seems more likely to be a danger that the use of resources at the current rate will lead to the adverse effects of climate change and different environmental problems. The demand for energy in the future will presumably increase owing to the adverse effects of climate change, however, the magnitude of it will depend on various uncertain interacting sources (Van et al., 2019).
One of the relevant examples of challenges caused by the changes in the population is the degradation of the environment creating several detrimental impacts on the population of a developing country, such as India. In recent years, a tremendous demand has become prevalent in the country concerning freshwater along with a shortage of water in the regions that may be considered arid or semi-arid owing to the increase in population, industrialization and urbanization (Adimalla and Venkatayogi, 2018). Another incident that may be taken as an example is in the USA, which is related to the number of wildfires that have taken place in the country as many new houses have been built near the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) due to the change in populations. It has been reported that the WUI within the USA has grown exponentially till 2020 from 1990 concerning new houses along with land areas and the occurrence of wildfire will not die down if the current trend of housing continues (Radeloff et al., 2018). Therefore, it may be implied from the given discussion that the population changes and demographic create significant opportunities and implications in the society, however, these aspects have a relevant impact on the aspect of environmental sustainability too.
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Conclusion
Finally, it may be concluded that demographics is known to be the study regarding the size of the population. Growth, along with the structure of people’s age including, mortality, immigration and fertility further lead to the change in population. The term population dynamics, on the other hand, refers to the total number of people living within a specific geographic location and it is concerned with the magnitude of population and all the variable factors included in their decline, expansion and maintenance. The countries that already have an extensive amount of population contribute a lot to the growth of the population and also the rapid growth of it, which eventually leads to the deterioration of the environment. The threat to the environment due to the growth of population is fundamentally based on the idea that overpopulation is a serious concern that will exhaust the availability of water, raw materials, farmlands and more.
In addition to that, it is also assumed that the innovations of future technologies will fail to overcome the scarcity of resources created by the requirements of the growing population without causing any damage to the environment. Therefore, it may be implied that the population change has been considered to create a significant number of challenges for the environment and the rise in the same will create more problems for the sustainable development of the earth. Along with that, urbanization, and industrialization has also created some opportunities too such as employment, and investment rates have increased to a great extent and that may be perceived as some opportunities too. However, the decrease in birth rate has increased the number of aged population which in return decreased the percentage of the young population and as a result, it may be predicted that the percentage of productivity will also decrease a lot.
Essay 4
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Introduction
In the contemporary world, the term fintech has become quite popular as most companies try to incorporate new technology for offering efficient and innovative financial services for businesses. Blockchain is one of the most prominent technologies that are a part of the fintech industry in the contemporary world and has made an impact on the aspect of international business to a great extent as well. The fintech industry has a substantial amount of benefits for a business, such as reducing the cost of transactions, and services, lowering the cost of search along with improving the experience of consumers. Blockchain technology has been quite impactful to create a decentralized financial system as it is able to enable multiple parties to deal with the aspect of transaction without having to trust one another. The history of transactions with the help of blockchain is grouped into blocks along with chains to make an audit of the data history. Moreover, the advancement of blockchain technology has extended far beyond the dimensions of cryptocurrency and has grabbed a hold within different aspects of international business (Hooper and Holtbrügge, 2020). Therefore, in this essay, the advancement of blockchain technology and the way it helps international business will be discussed at length to evaluate the way it has improved the structure of an international business.
- Discussing the way blockchain has left an impact on international business
It has already been mentioned that the impact of blockchain technology is no longer limited to just cryptocurrency as the given technology has been extremely helpful in creating decentralized finance, which has been quite fruitful for international business. Blockchain technology has the potential to empower and create decentralized platforms and eventually become the new ground for a business model that is considered to be decentralized (Chen and Bellavitis, 2020). Smart contracts are known to be a product that is stored on the blockchain and will begin to execute after all the predetermined conditions are addressed to automate an agreement for all parties without the involvement of any intermediary without losing any time. The concept of decentralized finance implies an alternative infrastructure of finance created on top of the Ethereum blockchain and it utilises smart contracts to establish protocols that imitate existing services related to finance in a more transparent manner (Schär, 2021).
Figure 3: Decentralised finance
(Source: Schär, 2021)
Smart contracts have been able to increase the efficiency, accuracy and speed of decentralized finance along with transparency, trust, and security and lower the cost of operations too. Fintech is a field that is growing at an exponential rate, having the potential to disrupt a large area within the financial industry and the investment in the given field has climbed from 2 billion to 55 billion in 2018 (Balyuk et al., 2020). Blockchain further helps the prospect of international business by facilitating data to be recorded in a digital format that is relatively secure by offering information in real-time regarding transactions amongst different parties. It will further provide all parties within a financial system in international business with records that are encrypted, transparent, easy to handle and difficult to tamper with, thereby enhancing the operations involved in international business and the financial business. Along with the financial sectors, such as banks, there is a complex concept of a value chain that is associated with international trading, such as transport, logistics, custom administration, financing operations amongst firms and more.
In that context, blockchain is able to optimize the processes, makes it possible for goods to be traced, ensures security in terms of payments and financing, enables the verification in terms of digital quality, certificate of origin and more. Blockchain even offers different solutions for various trading operations by making the activities of cross-border trades simple, making a contribution to the competitive environment along with reducing the cost of transactions too. According to research, the advent of blockchain technology is able to ensure safety and reduce the cost of trade by discarding the middlemen from the entire process of trading (Siddik et al., 2021). It needs to be mentioned that from trade finance to the clearance of customs, the process of trading involves a plethora of steps that require a lot of paper and thus, the blockchain technology is perceived by many as a tool to shift toward a paperless trading affair as well. Blockchain is further seen as a game-changer in relation to making the trade finance process to be digitized and automated to make the aspect of supply chain finance relatively easy.
Therefore, a wide range of banks working with several fintech start-ups along with Information Technology (IT) companies is monitoring the potential of blockchain technology in the contemporary era. Research has stated that the use of fintech is still disproportionate and used in ZIP codes with relatively fewer branches of banks, less income along with more numbers of minority households and within industries that have few banking relationships (Erel and Liebersohn, 2020). The distinctive characteristics of blockchain technology also make it quite interesting to facilitate the implementation of the given World Trade Facilitation Agreement along with the business to government and vice versa process at the national level too. Blockchain along with smart contracts may also help in administering the procedures required at borders and the national single windows that refer to the concept of a specific entry point through which stakeholders of trade are able to submit required documentation to finish the custom procedures. In that context, blockchain technology intends to establish a modified level of transparency and security and this given framework is an Internet of Things based structure to ensure the reliability of the information that is received (Pranav et al., 2020).
In addition to that, the advancement of blockchain technology may also be a powerful tool to help multinational small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in international trading by enabling access to the trading finances along with reducing the cost of the same too. The advancement of blockchain technology may also help these organizations to get rid of all the barriers in terms of entering a market, which will further help such companies to be involved in international trading. It needs to be established that blockchain technology has to some extent revolutionized the manner through which trust is able to be established between different entities, thereafter, the participants within a supply chain may share relevant information without the concern of any privacy breach (Juma et al., 2019).
A relevant example of the way blockchain technology is being used in various markets is within the food and agriculture sector to be precise. In December 2017, multinational corporations, such as IBM, Jingdong, and Walmart in collaboration with Tsinghua University created a blockchain food safety alliance to make the agricultural supply chain more transparent. Archer Daniels Midland along with several other corporations has also established a blockchain platform for automating the activities involved in the post-trade process in oilseeds and grains (Lakkakula et al., 2020). Marco Dunand, hailing from the Mercuria Energy Group has hinted that the individual’s company has been involved in an experiment regarding the shipment of oil from Africa to China. The conventional procedures caused the transfer of documents to take almost 40 days, while with the help of blockchain technology, it took only 4 days to transfer the same which resulted in significant savings in cost (Lakkakula et al., 2020).
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Conclusion
Finally, it may be concluded that the advancement of blockchain technology has been quite helpful in the aspect of international business. The blockchain is fundamentally based on a distributed ledger and as it has an open-source, any individual is able to see the things that are taking place. It works on a peer to peer basis and does not need any powerful intermediary to settle or make the transactions authenticate as well. Blockchain technology is able to make a contribution to the process of digitization regarding the complete rules concerning the process of origin within each stage, which is extremely crucial to the streamlining of certifications. It is also helpful in the international business to make the transfer of payments quickly in a relatively cheaper manner than it is presently possible through the means of different networks. The advancement of blockchain technology is also able to reduce the time that is required to issue a letter regarding credit from several days to just a few hours.
The fundamental value proposition of this technology is its capability to create an infrastructure that is perceived to be neutral in terms of sharing the control of technical infrastructure amongst the various stakeholders. Such an aspect is specifically suitable for the kinds of ecosystems in which all the participants are required to collaborate and simultaneously retain competing and conflicting interests. The use of blockchain within the field of international trade is also able to modify commercial transactions with the help of marketplaces that are based on an entire decentralised blockchain system. In international logistics and transport, the advancement of blockchain technology is being used to make the exchange of information digitized across the supply chain as well.
References
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