Journal Press India^®

This issue of FOCUS continues in its endeavour to stimulate discussion on pertinent issues in international business including sustainable foreign direct investment (FDI), bilateral trade relations, food security and labour productivity. The issue begins with a ‘Perspective’ by John Clarke on a very pertinent issue of global food security. This article examines the relationship between the sustainability of agrifood systems and efforts to improve global food security. It identifies some of the main drivers of growing food insecurity worldwide, some of the solutions available to reduce it, and comments on the perceived conflict between short term measures to reduce food insecurity, and the longer-term objective to make global and national food systems more sustainable. The author provides recommendations on how India and the European Union, could cooperate bilaterally to develop more resilient agriculture and food systems,

The paper by Mufaro Dzingirai and Neeta Baporikar examines the impact of retrenchment strategy on company performance in the manufacturing sector for the case of Zimbabwe. Explanatory sequential mixed methods research design supports this study whereby structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed in data collection. The quantitative results establish that the retrenchment strategy is a statistically insignificant factor to explain organizational performance.

Three papers in this issue deal with FDI and firm internationalization. The paper by Neyati Ahuja examines the trends in firm internationalization with special reference to Indian firms. Employing exports at global level and India, the study finds that India has remained in the top 25 exporting economies since many years. The study further examines the policy initiative taken by the government of India to promote exports from India and finds a high degree of correlation between the overall exports from India and the expenditure on export promotion scheme. Another paper by Jit Kalia examines determinants of FDI by using conventional pull and push factors along with new variables that might have gained importance in FDI decision making over the years. Based on a sample of 15 EMEs for period 1996-2020, a panel data analysis is undertaken to test significance of various FDI related factors. The results indicate that factors such as market size, growth and inflation, quality of domestic institutions and infrastructure play an important role in FDI decision. Among unconventional factors, participation in global value chain also matters for FDI as it ensures that foreign investor find adequate ecosystem to exploit export opportunities and import critical inputs required for domestic production. In the paper titled ‘Relevance of labour productivity for sustainable FDI’, Neha concludes that macroeconomic variables, labour productivity, and environmental variable were significant for sustainable FDI in ASEAN economies.

An interesting paper titled ‘Demystifying the trend of European companies to capture the Asian market of yogurt: A case of international trade’ by Ramandeep Singh and Harsh Saharan explores the trends in Yogurt market, in view of the volatility in international trade in milk and dairy products that has led to changes in the public policy of Western countries. The worldwide dairy market is structured as an “oligopoly with fringes. In products like yogurt, many EU companies are shifting their investment towards Asian countries, where the growth is significant. Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and CRn ratio is used to understand the competitiveness and concentration of different nations in the international trade of yogurt.

An analysis of India’s bilateral trade and unrealized export potential with USA has been conducted by Namrata Anand in her paper. The study finds that bilateral trade between these two nations, in terms of year over year (YoY) and the five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR), has jumped in the reference years. The unrealized export potential has also been investigated in some key products like diamonds, jewellery, precious metals and motor vehicles.

Preetham D., in the paper ‘Understanding the conceptual accounting framework of derivatives in BRICS nations for international business’, examines the existing Accounting Standard Board, the current IFRS status in the BRICS nations, and the accounting standards released for derivatives accounting.

The editorial team of the journal thanks all the contributors for stimulating a discussion on pertinent issues in international business and hope that this issue makes for an interesting and insightful reading for all.

Prof. (Dr.) Niti Bhasin

Editor-in-chief