Search

The geopolitical situation created by Russia and China over Ukraine has made it difficult for businesses in Germany, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, to manage their logistics and supply chain processes effectively. The objective of this paper was to examine the impact of the geopolitical situation on the supply chain of German family-owned SMEs in 2022, focusing on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and China. The researchers used a quantitative research study that sampled 50 participants drawn from four family-owned SMEs in Germany. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the participants. The path analysis results reveal a significant relationship between price changes and Germany's family-owned SMEs' supply chain processes (b = 0.716, t = 15.469, t < 0.05). The positive sign indicates that an increase in the independent variable results in an increase in the dependent variable. The positive sign indicates that an increase in organizational characteristics increases attitude towards green practices. The study concludes that supply inflation, price cost, and supply cost fundamentally affect the supply chain processes of Germany-owned SMEs. The German government and other stakeholders in the SME sectors should develop policies that aim to provide financial and regulatory assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany through public-private partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil has historically been the most significant primary energy source for our daily lives and business activities. However, recent skyrocketing oil prices have been one of the greatest concerns among policymakers, business executives, and the general public due to their impacts on daily necessities, including food, clothing, and automobile transportation. As a result, fast-rising inflation on the global scale is attributed to mounting oil prices. Even though many countries have made a conscious effort to tame oil prices and the subsequent inflation, their efforts are often in vain due to some uncontrollable situations. These situations include the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, where Russia began weaponizing its oil resources and limiting oil supplies to its neighboring European countries. Faced with the current energy crisis, a growing number of policymakers and business executives have attempted to develop energy-induced risk mitigation strategies. With this in mind, the primary purpose of this paper is to investigate what may have caused oil price hikes and to determine how significantly oil prices influence commodity prices. This paper then proposes ways to mitigate energy-induced supply chain risks by analyzing four decades of secondary data obtained from multiple sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for why we believe that the Russia-Ukraine crisis signals the end of a global era defined by globalisation. Even though Russia's economy is only a fraction of the US, EU or China, its role in the world is much more relevant and the events in Ukraine are triggering a cascade of effects that will redefine the political, social and economic thinking and interactions among nations long into the future. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the "peace dividend" of recent decades is gone as military budgets are increasing significantly around the world. Energy and raw material dependency on other countries is considered a strategic weakness. The war has disrupted global supply chains and nations are now shunning the exposure to other countries, especially ones that do not share similar values. The macroeconomic environment has changed as growth prospects are depressed and inflation is on the rise. The world is moving to a period of reorganisation and instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's turbulent and unstable environment, international companies, including Ukraine and Georgia, are forced to move to technologies they did not plan to implement for some time and reconsider their strategic priorities. "Become digital or die" is the reality of the COVID-19 epidemic. Companies that will survive in the long run - those that have the best tools that allow them to be flexible, agile, agile; those who are better than others will be able to respond to changes in the product range, control and monitor their factories, regulate supply chains and will be able to use their workforce really anywhere. Mixed research methods were used to analyse the data. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study were the dialectical method of cognition, a systematic approach to the use of general provisions of economic theory. According to the research results, despite the serious positive transformations in the field of digitalization, there are a number of current and significant unresolved issues in the industry. It is established that the digital economy in Ukraine and Georgia, despite a number of existing problems, is developing dynamically. Organizations in various sectors of the economy are beginning to actively implement digital solutions, taking into account the specifics of their activities. Innovation is the engine of economic development, so attempts are made to find and create the most appropriate forms of organizational associations of innovative enterprises, alliances, within which strong cooperative ties can be established. The need for large-scale cooperation and coordination in the form of networking of participants in the innovation process becomes quite obvious, which provides them with a beneficial effect and corresponding competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]