Firms after the financial crisis in the international marketplace

• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Mizan Rahman,David Floyd
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2285

OVERVIEW ARTICLE

Firms after the financial crisis in the international marketplace

David Floyd | Mizan Rahman

Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom

Correspondence

David Floyd, Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS, United Kingdom.

Email: dfloyd@lincoln.ac.uk

Much work has been done on how global coordination of economic

policy helped reduce the falling levels of output and prevented the

2008 crisis of being a repeat performance of the 1930s. Indeed, global

coordination and expansion of fiscal and monetary policies where

appropriate did help in this regard. However, little has been men-

tioned of other factors that have attributed to a better outcome in

today's business environment. This special issue sets out to examine

the changing factors in the business environment that are also helping

to cushion the blow of the recent downturn.

The first paper by Floyd shows how increases in global labor flows

have helped reduce the inflationary impact of a financial crisis due to

increased competition in the workplace where wage pressure has

therefore been reduced. Improvements in infrastructure and easier

access to communications technology have helped further reduce

business costs. The paper further shows how increased labor mobility

can help countries that have aging populations increase productivity.

The analysis further demonstrates the benefits of expanding the

workforce in all age range groupings, leading to further increases in

tax revenues, which can also help combat a large budget deficit in

times of financial crisis.

The paper by Ren et al. shows the importance of tourism and its

expanding impact on the global economy. Furthermore, it shows the

increase in use of social media as a vehicle for promoting competition

within the sector. The expansion of theme parks has been a key to

promoting tourism as customers begin to focus more on the experi-

ence and excitement of visiting a greater variety of destinations. This

has helped create enhanced employment and growth opportunities in

the global economy. Increasingly, today and in the future, the younger

population has become more interested in the experience and service

and is willing to devote more income to this activity as markets for

goods have become more saturated in a more advanced stage of the

globalization process.

The paper by Ardley provides further focus on the importance of

the internet and its role in marketing and business activities. Recently,

for example in retail, online sales have been the fastest growing

business opportunities for many firms. The paper shows that added

value and product differentiation can be created from the use of an

online outfit; there is the likelihood of further sales since stock can be

provided at a faster pace and customers may not be confined to just

what is available using the traditional method of purchase. Further-

more, customers can take part in developing the brand further as is

shown in the case of the Lego. This helps increase additional levels of

customer demand that helps to insulate the current economy from

falling demand and softens the impact of a potential financial crisis in

the future.

The financial crisis of 2008 has led to lower trust levels among

financial institutions' customers. This has created an opportunity for

less-regulated, technology-enabled non-banks to thrive by offering

financial services more cheaply and efficiently compared to traditional

banks. The recent digital transformation has made it possible for these

financial technology companies to offer comfortable tech-based finan-

cial solutions, such as mobile payment, and to meet consumer

demands with low-cost and convenient ways to transfer money and

to buy and sell products. As a result, the lost trust is being rebuilt since

the financial crisis, and specifically, mobile payment has contributed to

this. The paper by Hasan et al. investigates the factors influencing

mobile payment in China's bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) market. The

study results show product bundling, after-sale services, interference

from other institutions, perceived corporate integrity, and monopoly

and information opaqueness can influence mobile payment adoption

in the BOP context.

The paper by Brown et al. is an exploration into how the U.K. Civil

Service appears to have intentionally de-marketed itself as an

employer to its perceived noncore staff as a strategic reaction to the

2007–2009 Financial Crisis. In reacting to the Financial Crisis of

2007–2009, the U.K. Civil Service has sought to redefine its relation-

ship with its employees. The U.K. Civil Service appears to have shifted

to a model of employer–employee relationship, which segments the

workforce, markets itself to its perceived core employees, and de-

markets itself to its perceived noncore employees.

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2285

Strategic Change. 2019;28:319–320. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jsc © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 319