The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union has had disruptive effects on international trade. As part of its 'Global Britain' strategy in the wake of Brexit, the UK is pursuing a series of Free Trade Agreements with countries around the world, including Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and possibly the United States. Closer to home, the UK is under mounting pressure to dissuade Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from seeking independence to regain the severed ties with the EU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe assess the expected long-run consequences of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic and use these as a platform to argue that international business (IB) as a field should expand its research agenda to study the international division of labor. The worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the shift toward the de-globalization of capital, but it will also speed up the move to a stronger globalization of labor. This paradoxical, simultaneous occurrence of de-globalization and globalization offers rich opportunities for future IB research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this essay, we apply insights from International Economics and Economic Geography to examine how the current COVID-19 crisis may structurally change the international economy. Our key argument is that the current crisis will fundamentally change key economic actors' risk appetite, triggering a renewed risk assessment that will lead to the comeback of buffers and borders across industries. This partial return to regionalization will involve a form of de-globalization that transforms modern just-in-time management into its just-in-case counterpart, because resilience will be priced and discounted for by enterprises and governments alike.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF