International Business and the Challenges of Global Competition

Challenges to the international expansion of a firm's business must be well understood and addressed. They include country, political, and currency risks and structural and employee capacity challenges. Recent developments such as the rise of protectionism in mature liberal markets, climate change, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have escalated global business risks. The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic over the last two years and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have had a debilitating impact on the global business ecosystem, which the uncoordinated responses from different governments have exacerbated. Foreign companies operating in Russia have been forced to suspend or exit the profitable Russian market by parent governments, investors, and shareholders, even at a significant loss, thus dampening the ability to compete against peers. The actions taken could even lead to permanent loss of market that they have striven hard to acquire. The coronavirus pandemic could be rightly called an act of God since the world could not prevent its spread. That cannot explain the current war situation in Ukraine because the political actors' unwise decisions are responsible for the severe losses and existential challenges faced by international companies and the global population. This paper discusses the impact of this emergent risk to international businesses that the Russia-Ukraine war has thrown up where a friendly host country suddenly becomes an international pariah, and business operations and survival now moved to the vagaries of international politics.