Investment in the Brazilian economy during the crisis

In this short article, it is analyzed as to whether financial flows and credit concessions explain the behavior of investment in the Brazilian economy during the 2008 crisis. Beyond the importance of demand, changes in expectations seem to be an important source of instability in investment and, as a consequence, in the economy.

Alternative banking: theory and evidence from Europe

Since financial liberalization in the 1980s, non-profit maximizing, stakeholder-oriented banks have outperformed private banks in Europe. This article draws on empirical research, banking theory and theories of the firm to explain this apparent anomaly for neo-liberal policy and contemporary market-based banking theory. The realization of competitive advantages by alternative banks (savings banks, cooperative banks and development banks) has significant implications for conceptions of bank change, regulation and political economy.

Germany's socio-economic model and the Euro crisis

Germany's socio-economic model, the "social market economy", was established in West Germany after World War II and extended to the unified Germany in 1990. During a prolonged recession after the adoption of the Euro in 1998, major reforms (Agenda 2010) were introduced which many consider as the key of Germany's recent success. The reforms had mixed results: employment increased but has consisted to a large extent of precarious low-wage jobs. Growth depended on export surpluses based on an internal real devaluation (low unit labour costs) which make Germany vulnerable to global recessions as in 2009. Overall inequality increased substantially.

Update analysis on the international crisis and its impact on the Mexican economy

The aim of this study is to analyze the current state of the Mexican economy in the face of the international crisis. Two questions are asked: Is the international crisis over? Is the Mexican economy strong and resilient enough to face the crisis in the eurozone? The first of these questions is answered in the first part. The answer to the second question is discussed in the second part of this study. Also examined are the large number of short, medium and long term problems that the Mexican economy will have to face in 2012 and perhaps 2013.

Institutions, credibility and crisis: the inconsistencies of Argentine exchange rate policy (1991-2006)

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to explain the time inconsistencies of the convertibility regime that led to the 2001 crisis. The argument suggests that the credibility requirements for convertibility induced a dynamic of legal, fiscal, financial and external commitments that increased exit costs and time inconsistencies. The second objective is to explain the tensions of the floating regime that replaced convertibility in 2002. We describe the effects of a floating exchange rate on macroeconomic imbalance and the growing tension between competitiveness and inflation.

The boom and crisis of the Convertibility Plan in Argentina

This article analyses the relationship between state policies and economy in Argentina 1991-2001. In 1991 the currency board regime named 'convertibility' was implemented, within the framework of important neoliberal reforms introduced by the State. These neoliberal reforms facilitated capitalist restructuring, characterized by a leap in productivity, investment and profits. Likewise, these reforms generated imbalances which, along with the changes in the world market conditions from 1998, led to the deepest crisis in Argentina's history. The inefficiency of state neoliberal policies in managing the crisis, based on fiscal adjustment to guarantee the continuity of external financing, led to an economic depression and a financial crash, sparking a mass rebellion and the end of convertibility.

2014 Ukraine crisis – Implications for corporate crisis management

In the late year 2013 events started to unfold in Ukraine’s capital city Kiev that would change the political and economic environment of the EU and Russia. The tension had been building for years between the two parties with Ukraine in the middle and during 2014 the tension blew up and events started to escalate into a crisis, which we now know as the 2014 Ukraine crisis. The crisis would include political, economic, and even military actions by all the parties involved with Ukraine slipping close to civil war. Both political and economic hardships followed for others as well with both the EU and Russia placing heavy political and economic sanctions on each other. Most notably in terms of this paper, the Russian federation placed total import embargo sanctions on food imports from the EU and some other countries. This meant that a Finnish dairy company, Valio, had to engage in corporate crisis management as almost a fifth of its total revenue was cut in a heartbeat. Valio had been prepared for some kind of complications with their Russian market as events started to unfold in Ukraine in the beginning of 2014 but never did they suspect that a complete shutdown of the Russian market would follow. The company is still recovering after more than a year after the sanctions were posed and have not been able to supplement the lost revenue streams. This research is a qualitative research aiming to find answers to the main questions: 1) What is the 2014 Ukraine crisis and what kind of special implications does it have and 2) How did the crisis affect Valio and how did Valio fare in its crisis management efforts. The data has been collected both from secondary document sources and primary sources. The main findings of this research are that the political and economic environment of the EU and Russia has gone through a profound change during the years 2013-2015. The companies and governments should re-evaluate what kind of environment they are now facing and what kinds of risks the new situation poses. This also calls for a deep academic analysis from the academic community. In corporate crisis management of Valio the main findings are that the former literature has looked into crisis management as one-time occurrence but the new crises and global events would call for a more on-going crisis analysis and active crisis management. Thus, corporate crisis management should be viewed as a cycle. Valio specifically handled the situation surprisingly well, considering that their revenue was indeed cut by a fifth. The main aspects of crisis management, which Valio did not handle as well, concern the learning curve of crisis management. They could be doing more in order to prepare for future crises better by learning from this experience. The situation is then still on-going in the autumn 2015 both in Ukraine and within Valio.

Suomen laskusuhdanteiden vertailu: 1990-luvun laman ja 2000-luvun globaalin finanssikriisin vaikutukset kuluttajille

Suomessa merkittävimpiä talouden laskusuhdanteita ja talouskriisejä ovat sotien jälkeen olleet 1990-luvun alun lama sekä vuonna 2008 alkanut finanssikriisin jälkeinen taantuma. Näillä kahdella ilmiöllä on ollut laajalti vaikutuksia koko kansantalouteemme, ja luonnollisesti suomalaisten kuluttajien taloudellinen hyvinvointi on muuttunut ilmiöiden myötä. Yksilöiden aiempaa huonompi taloudellinen hyvinvointi laskusuhdanteissa aiheutuu laskeneista tuloista, työttömyydestä ja varallisuushintojen laskusta sekä edellä mainittujen seurauksista. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on analysoida ja vertailla 1990-luvun laman ja 2000-luvun globaalin finanssikriisin aiheuttamia taloudellisia vaikutuksia suomalaisille kuluttajille. Lisäksi tarkoituksena on selvittää, minkä eri tekijöiden kautta laskusuhdanteet vaikuttavat kuluttajiin ja miksi. Tutkielman empiirisessä osiossa käytetään pääasiassa Tilastokeskuksen tuottamaa kvantitatiivista materiaalia sekä analyysin rikastamiseksi erilaisia kvalitatiivisia tutkimustuloksia aiheesta. Tutkielman lopputuloksena voidaan todeta 1990-luvun laman vaikuttaneen suomalaisiin kuluttajiin voimakkaammin ja pitkäkestoisemmin kuin finanssikriisin aiheuttaman taantuman. Laman vaikutukset kestivät useita vuosia, ja palautuminen oli hidasta. Erityisen suureksi ongelmaksi nousi työttömyyden voimakas kasvu. Finanssikriisin myötä työttömyys reagoi bruttokansantuotteen laskuun nähden sen sijaan maltillisesti, eivätkä esimerkiksi kotitalouksien tulot laskeneet samalla tavalla kuin laman aikana. Lisäksi merkittävässä osassa 1990-luvun lamaa oli asuntomarkkinoiden hintakupla ja sen puhkeaminen, jolla oli voimakas vaikutus reaalitalouteen. Laskukausien toisistaan poikkeavat vaikutukset johtuvat pitkälti niiden syntyyn johtaneiden syiden eroista sekä valtion talouspoliittisista toimista laskukausien helpottamiseksi. Siinä missä 1990-luvun lama johtui pääasiassa Suomen sisäisistä poliittisista päätöksistä ja pankkisektorista, oli finanssikriisi Suomen ulkopuolinen globaalin rahoitusmarkkinoiden häiriö.

Impact of Product-harm Crisis on Brand Equity: the Moderating Role of Corporate Social Performance

There is an increasing amount of product-harm crisis in the past few years; and the impact of a product-harm crisis becomes more and more influential due to the high increasing speed of globalization. And it is believed that the negative damages to a firm leading to a loss of the intangible assets is bigger than other costs such as the cost of the product recall. Brand equity is a very important and valuable intangible asset for a firm; and it is particularly vulnerable during the crisis. And CSP (CSP) is a hot concept associated with product-harm crisis and brand equity. The aim of this study is to understand how product-harm crisis influences by simultaneously involving CSP as a moderator in a consumer-based level. An experimental study was conducted through an online questionnaire among 198 students in Finland. The questionnaire mainly assessed the consumers’ attitudes towards CSP and brand before/after a fictional product-harm crisis. The results shows that the brand equity was negatively related to the product-harm crisis. And the extent level of crisis’s severity was positively related to the loss of the brand equity; whereas, acknowledged blame was more useful to compensate the loss of brand equity in the low-severity crisis. CSP acted as a moderator role which could compensate the loss of brand equity caused by the product-harm crisis. Managerial implications are also offered for crisis managers, brand managers, and CSR managers.

Effects of bank supervision and regulation on bank risk

In the last few decades, banking has strongly internationalized and become more complex. Hence, bank supervision and regulation has taken global perspective, too. The most important international regulation are the Basel frameworks by the Basel committee on banking supervision. This study examines the effects of bank supervision and regulation, especially the Basel II, on bank risk and risk-taking. In order to separate and recognize the efficiency of these effects, the co-effects of many supervisory and regulatory tools together with other relevant factors must be taken into account. The focus of the study is on the effects of asymmetric information and banking procyclicality on the efficiency of the Basel II. This study tries to find an answer, if the Basel II, implemented in 2008, has decreased bank risk in banks of European Union member states. This study examines empirically, if the volatility on bank stock returns have changed after the implementation of the Basel II. Panel data consists of 62 bank stock returns, bank-specific variables, economic variables and variables concerning regulatory environment between 2003 and 2011. Fixed effects regression is used for panel data analysis. Results indicate that volatility on bank stock returns has increased after 2008 and the implementation of the Basel II. Result is statistically very significant and robustness has been verified in different model specifications. The result of this study contradicts with the goal of the Basel II about banking system stability. Banking procyclicality and wrong incentives for regulatory arbitrage under asymmetric information explained in theoretical part may explain this result. On the other hand, simultaneously with the implementation of the Basel II, the global financial crisis emerged and caused severe losses in banks and increased stock volatility. However, it is clear that supervision and regulation was unable to prevent the global financial crisis. After the financial crisis, supervision and regulation have been reformed globally. The main problems of the Basel II, examined in the theoretical part, have been recognized in order to prevent problems of procyclicality and wrong incentives in the future.

Que no lo sorprenda la crisis en su empresa sin saber cómo enfrentarla

Bogotá Emprende

Desafíos del sector financiero colombiano ante la crisis económica mundial

Gestión del Conocimiento

Perspectivas del comercio exterior colombiano en la crisis

Gestión del Conocimiento

“Liderazgo Transformador” Sostenibilidad empresarial en medio de la crisis.

En la conferencia se habló sobre el liderazgo que se debe llevar para lograr la sostenibilidad de las empresas en el tiempo, teniendo siempre una visión hacia el futuro con una respectiva planeación ligada a los valores y objetivos estratégicos para poder enfrentar las crisis que se presenten en el tiempo. Su objetivo fue motivar a las empresas para que tengan una visión más amplia de cómo llegar a ser sostenibles y tener en cuenta su responsabilidad social. Conferencista: Doctora Rose Marie Saab Faour, Presidente de Independence Drilling S.A.

La crisis financiera y penetración a Estados Unidos

Desarrollo empresarial y creación de empresa