International Business : A Common Trend

Exchange rate risk, also called as ‘currency risk’ is the risk arising from currency fluctuations. Volatile exchange rates can reduce cost and productivity advantages gained over years of hard work. Firms exposed to international economy face this risk. When a firm has already committed to a foreign currency denominated transaction, the firm is exposed to a exchange rate risk. The firm will incur a

As the leading financial market in the world, the Foreign Exchange Market consists of several types of financial institutions, such as, investors, such as, central banks, brokers, and investment firms. The Foreign Exchange Market does not have an actual physical location; it is a worldwide system of computers. Currency traders are linked together from all over the world by these computers. Once currency traders enter the network, the computers allow them to exchange currencies by purchasing, selling, or speculating ("Foreign Exchange Markets - Forex - Investopedia Definition | Investopedia," n.d.). In the Foreign Exchange Market, also called Forex Market, trillions of transactions are completed everyday. Within this market are the spot market and forward market. Spot transactions take place in the spot market. A spot transaction occurs when one currency is traded for another currency. These types of transactions are immediate, however it takes two business days for the bank to process this transaction due to different time zones (Standard Bank, n.d.). Forward transactions occur in the forward market and are often called foreign exchange contracts. Unlike spot transactions, forward market transactions are set to occur on a specified future date. The agreement and exchange rate of the transaction is already determined, however, it will be traded at a future date, which is noted in the contract (Standard Bank, n.d.). Many historical

Foreign exchange risk consists of three main types of exposures. First, transaction exposure is when a firm has a contractual obligation under which it supposed to receive or pay a certain amount in a currency that is different than its home currency. Transaction exposure has an effect of the firm’s income statement because the accounts payables or receivables can be affected by currency exchange rates. Second foreign exchange exposure is the translation which impacts the balance sheet of the firm. It occurs when consolidating financial statements of foreign units into a company’s home currency. The third type of foreign exchange exposure is the economic which influences a firm’s cash flows when exchange rates change. This type of exposure can impact assets, liabilities, or any type of anticipated foreign currency cash exchange.

T2 (Tea Too) is a tea heaven, a tea-lovers’ heaven. It is a premium brand established in 1996 in Australia over 18 years ago and cherished internationally by all tea devotees. It has 60 stores throughout in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and America. However, the first retail outlet is located in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. Maryanne Shearer is the creative director of T2 - Australia’s leading tea retailer, with largest range of tea and tea wares in Australia. It offers the country’s largest range of premium, fragrant tea and tea wares from all around the globe. Tea devotees can spend hours at their taster table, trying all the different types of hot and cold teas they have come up with. It’s

If both of these countries were given resources to produce both oil and cars it would be a waste for both the countries therefore by trading with each other, Japan and Saudi Arabia employ their respective resources efficiently by mutually benefiting from each other’s relationship. Japan gets oil that it needs to power its cars, and Saudi Arabia gets the cars that its citizen needs. Thus products that countries produce and with which they can trade freely with others countries and can achieve substantial gains from trade and can result in improving national living standards.

Financial theory offers several rationales for financial risk management. Hedging enables firms to maintain their access to internal funds as well as reduces the costs of financial distress. The theoretical framework offers, however, few tools for currency risk identification and for choosing a proper hedging instrument. This Thesis seeks to help firms manage risks better by defining the currency risk exposures of a multinational corporation, by describing their effects on the cash flows, profit and loss and balance sheet of the corporation as well as by comparing the applicability of currency forwards and currency options in hedging these exposures. The exposure framework is constructed based on an

Under International Accounting Standards Board rules, what method is required to account for foreign currency transactions?

If you ever traveled to a foreign country—preferably outside the tourist traps—and spent money, you probably had to exchange your domestic money for local currency. Regardless of where you made such a trade, such as at a currency exchange kiosk when you landed at the airport, the fact that you successfully transacted two, completely distinct currencies related by an exchange rate means that you were, for the briefest of moments, a participant in the nearly $4-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, or forex. But it is unlikely that such a gargantuan turnover is the appreciable result of money changing by spendthrift globetrotters. Rather, in today’s globalized economy, any institution, from a small export business to a central bank, is liable to have a hand in the currency—and therefore the purchasing power—of a foreign country. While the foreign exchange market may seem like a complicated world of arcane finance, it is not only possible for you to actively participate in it, but there is a highly-developed infrastructure of individual or retail forex trading ready for your attempts to turn a profit from besting the ever-changing exchange rate between currencies. While a professional comprehension of forex trading entails far more practical and conceptual knowledge than this process paper can capture, good preparation and a methodical understanding of the fundamentals of forex practices can help you develop the basic skills to get started in retail forex trading.

Introduction Overview of the hedging techniques In the financial market, almost all of companies need to face the currency risk. In order to manage the currency risk, companies will use different hedging techniques, such as financial and operational hedging techniques. For example, money market, futures contracts, options and forwards contracts are commonly used by firms, as well as operational hedging techniques. All of 4 types of financial hedging techniques are short-term hedge. Money market is a part of financial markets for assets involved in short-term borrowing,lending, buying and selling. Its features are high liquidity, lower risk, such as treasury bills. Futures contracts are future transaction for buying or selling, and made

1. Fluctuation in exchange rates: Exchange rates of currencies of different countries fluctuate continuously and in a very random manner with the change in the demand and supply state of the concerned currency. That can translate the profit from the international business transaction into a loss or vice-versa. Thus, the exporters dealing with foreign receivables should be conservative to avoid this risk.

International business has been and continues to be a rapidly growing dimension with communication and transportation advances enabling companies to service a world market. This brings about a new perspective when conducting business in a foreign country, with the need to consider different laws, economic policies, political climates, cultural dynamics, and social factors. Obligatory for its success, a company wishing to expand globally must look at these differences when formulating its international business plan. Additionally, on the heels of such scandals such as those involving Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam Computer Services, investors desire a single international accounting standard; however, hold differing opinions as to what that single standard should be.

Evidence from statistical tests suggesting a significant impact of foreign exchange gains and losses on profitability corroborates comments from the financial statements of sample companies for this research. However, this evidence is unlike those of Lee and Suh (2012) who argued that “exchange rate changes explain less than 2% of the variation in foreign operations profitability for most industries and the impact of exchange rate changes on profitability is not significant’’. This conclusion was reached after an empirical study involving 11 different industries. The results of this research are also dissimilar to those of Pantzalis et al. (2001) who finds that only 15% of 220 multinational companies in the US evidence exchange rate exposures that are statistically significant. Evidence from these other studies are also similar to those of most studies conducted using multinationals (Bartov and Bodnar 2012; Griffin and Stulz 2001; Muller and Verschoor 2006). The lack of significant exposure as highlighted by these studies have been ascribed to the hedging activities adopted by Multinational companies to reduce the impact of foreign exchange exposure (Allayannis and Ofek 2001; Lee and Suh 2012).

The end of the 1980s experienced a visible change experienced in the literature concerning MNE functions and nature of business (Segal-Horn and Faulkner, 2010). Before 1980s, the main research in MNE field was about analyzing relation between affiliates and headquarters of the firm, and also decisions concerning making investment in foreign country, which was also experienced in Dunning’s work. After that, the focus was shifted to operations concerning coordination in management of a network of affiliates of an MNE and analysis of the competitive advantages received by these affiliates from the respective economies. Therefore, the last 20 years have experienced a very beneficial theoretical work in the field of international business and

Evidence from studies suggest that firms involved in foreign operations are exposed to foreign exchange risks which can be further classified into the economic exposure, the transactional exposure and the translational exposure (Moyer et al. 2011; Lumby 2001). Arnold (2008) observed that investment decisions and the viability of foreign operations in the long term are affected by both the transaction, translation and economic risks. This is so because entities are affected by variability of

In this paper we will be answering five critical questions in the world of international business. In the business world companies must understand how to answer these critical questions.