MS5SO54O Business Economics Assignment Sample

• Type Assignment
• Downloads549
• Pages6
• Words1578

Introduction to Business Economics Assignment

Business economics is explained as a field of applied economics which studies the organisational, environmental, market-related and financial challenges experienced by companies, and as often explored in academic Assignment Help, it involves subjects like the concept of manufacturing factors, scarcity, supply and consumption. This report is going to present the economic analysis of the import and export industry using Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd., a popular independent motor factors firm operating in the South West that supplies auto parts and sells diagnostic equipment and accessories. It will explain the impact of Covid-19 on employment patterns and technological adaptations, and further discuss the possibility of industry expansion along with the relevance of international trade.

MS5SO54O Business Economics Assignment Sample

Liked This Sample? Hire Me Now

Jacqueline Gough 5 Years | PhD

Main Body

COVID-19 and employment patterns

Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd., was founded in the 1991 and the company is now proud to be identified by their loyal customers. The company run above 90 vehicles and has nine branches (Autoparts & Diagnostics, 2023). There are many economic crisis and Covid-19 was one of them issue that highly affected the company. In the time of pandemic, employment pattern was the crucial factor that heavily affected. There is a close relation between employment and pandemic. Lots of working people had lost their jobs because of economic crisis. Due to pandemic, like other the company terminated their employees to reduce the operational costs and the rate of unemployment reached a peak. According to sources, the rate of unemployment reached approximately 23.52% in April 2024 (NIDM, 2020). The government announced the lockdown in all over the country that act as barrier in business for Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. As the firm operates in import-export industry, they faced many difficulties to supply the products on time and seriousness of pandemic leads to reduce import and export of goods. Employee or labour shortage was another issue that encountered by the firm. Due to safety concerns workers have chosen to stay at home instead of doing work outside which affected the business operations of the company and reduce the income and revenues.

COVID-19 was major economic crisis that has drastically reduced the trade in goods and services. Stay at home approach had reduced the shopping opportunities with demand, therefore it put pressure on the company to reduce or stop the business operations. As the Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. supply the automotive parts, tools and equipment which were not necessary that time which decreased the need of employee (Veeramani and Anam, 2021). The company’s employment pattern was impacted due to significant challenges as well as disruption which maximised the breakdowns in supply chain operations and it was forced to halt their supply due to safety protocols as well as shortage of raw materials. Although, the Covid-19 pandemic has introduced different ways to carry out the work like hybrid or remote work. But this kind of model was not suitable for import-export industry. Further, it increased the financial issues and the company had to cut down the salary of workers and supply chain cost. Although, the drivers used caution and supplied the automotive parts and tools with proper safety. But, it was challenging for the Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd., to work in pandemic which making sure safety of workers.

COVID-19 and technological adaptions

Covid-19 has impacted the import-export industry in many ways but it has also speeded the investment in digital technologies. Almost all business sectors including import-export industry started to adopt and apply the digital technologies in the business. The company adopted and implemented the new strategies and invested in digital technologies in order to uphold the business activities of the firm. The other reason behind adoption of technologies was to avoid the economic collapse. This situation harmed the supply chain management and commerce but on the other hand, it accelerated the shift in the direction of trade tech (Mishrif and Khan, 2023). The company has invested extremely in information technology with industry leaders MAM Software. The firm operated entirely integrated system that allowed their each and every branch to have full visibility regarding stocks of other branches. The most of work was completed by using platforms and software which did not required human contact. The company take orders by phone calls and online and followed the contactless delivery. Visibility as well as data sharing are crucial for supply chain management and logistics management in the 21^st century. Trading restrictions because of Covid-19 forced the company to invest in data sharing as well as supply chain management technology to reduce the negative impact.

Automation, artificial intelligence, robotics, internet of things and many more technologies allow for more effective distributed technique of supply operations. The company used the dedicated inter-company van to transfer the stock at different locations four times per day (Onjewu, Hussain and Haddoud, 2022). Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. was highly dedicated their employees as well as customers and ensured the safety of employees and customers. In year 2020, the value of information and technology services related to export of ICT reached $676 billion in all over the world. The utilisation of communication technologies, computer services along with the software were enhanced because of lockdown restrictions. This took online deliverable services to approximately 64% of total services exports because the company contracted comparatively little against the conditions of an unprecedented deterioration in overall services trade (UNCTAD, 2021). Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. is proud to become member of IMTFA which is one of the leading buying groups of the United Kingdom. It provides the opportunity to the firm to buy as well as sell the highly efficient and excellent automotive brands at reasonable or competitive prices to the customers. Overall, technology helped the company highly in Covid-19 and they are continuously using the digital technologies to supply products.

Possibility of the industry expansion and relevance for international trade

The potential for export industry in the future is highly promising. UK is one of the major economies and but the country usually imports more compared to exports that means it operates a trade deficit. The UK’s export industry faces lots of challenges such as; drop in sales in EU as well as non-EU markets after Covid-19. Apart from issues, the emerging technologies bring new and advantageous opportunities for the car parts manufacturers which directly benefit the export companies like Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. Cars and other vehicles have become more sophisticated and refined over the past years (Carrasco and Tovar-García, 2021). Numerous new vehicles now combined earlier considered luxurious system such as; integrated satellite navigation systems, keyless ignitions etc. Export industry can leverage this trend and increase the manufacturing of automotive equipment, parts and tools. If the industry will take into account the strategy then it can directly benefit the Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. The firm will have lots of goods for supply which can increase the demand of the company.

At the present, the company is operating in UK only but they have lots of potential to enter into other countries or regions. The company can utilise their expertise, experience and industry knowledge to enter into global markets (Pereira et al, 2022). The company is already using the advance technologies and can increase invest in research and development to find the innovative solutions. Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. can also add more vehicle parts and tools and sell it into the international markets. The international trade will help to enhance the efficiency of export industry and achieve great competitive advantage in all over the world.

Conclusion

As per above report, it has analysed that Covid-19 was severe economic and global crisis and Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. highly affected by it. The government announced the complete lockdown and only garneted permission to essential services. This made it hard for the company to run their business effectively. The company terminated lots of workers because it reduced the need of workers. Moreover, it encouraged the uses of digital technologies within the export industry. The company operates its business effectively and also can grow business internationally because of technological adaptions and experience.

Recommendations

• From above analysis it is recommended to the Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. to invest in electric vehicles. The technological advancement has made it possible for the suppliers to use electrical vehicles for supply goods and increase their efficiency. It will also help the company to improve its sustainability and protect environment. So, the company should invest in electric vehicles.
• The company can invest in robotics and automation that will help to automate the repetitive tasks. It will provide the company different distribution ways and make work easy. By this technology, Autoparts & Diagnostics Ltd. will save time and resources and reduce operational costs which further help in increasing the company’s financial health.

References

Books and Journals

• Carrasco, C.A. and Tovar-García, E.D., 2021. Trade and growth in developing countries: the role of export composition, import composition and export diversification. Economic Change and Restructuring, 54(4), pp.919-941.
• Mishrif, A. and Khan, A., 2023. Technology adoption as survival strategy for small and medium enterprises during COVID-19. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 12(1), p.53.
• Onjewu, A.K.E., Hussain, S. and Haddoud, M.Y., 2022. The Interplay of E-commerce, Resilience and Exports in the Context of COVID-19. Information Systems Frontiers, 24(4), pp.1209-1221.
• Pereira, C.S., Durão, N., Moreira, F. and Veloso, B., 2022. The importance of digital transformation in international business. Sustainability, 14(2), p.834.
• Veeramani, S. and Anam, 2021. COVID-19 impact on exports of services: Opportunities, challenges and suggestions for India. FIIB Business Review, 10(4), pp.315-326.

Online

• A post-COVID-19 Revival Analysis. [Online] Available through < https://nidm.gov.in/journal/PDF/Journal/Journal2020/Journal2020f.pdf >
• Autoparts & Diagnostics, 2023. About us. [Online] Available through < https://autopartsanddiagnostics.com/ >
• NIDM, 2020. Bridging the Employment Gap in Agriculture Sector:
• UNCTAD, 2021. Trade data for 2020 confirm growing importance of digital technologies during COVID-19. [Online] Available through < https://unctad.org/news/trade-data-2020-confirm-growing-importance-digital-technologies-during-covid-19 >