globalEDGE Blog Podcast

Food, everyone eats it. It is a nutritious substance that helps maintain life and growth. What started as hunting in gathering turned into strolling through a grocery store, and paying a price for food. This year, world food prices have risen for the third month in a row according to the United Nations Food Agency. The price for food is at an all time high and is continuously rising.

In business, sustainability is defined as the practice of operating a business without impacting the environment negatively. Sustainable businesses operate with the interests of local and global environments in mind and consider the impact on society and the environment. The focuses of these businesses are profits, people, and the planet. Keeping these three themes in mind, businesses are able to adopt and modify business models and plans in order to fully create a meaningful sustainability program and strategy.

Since the beginning of Bitcoin in 2009, the implementation of the cryptocurrency has been very apparent to the public. The new form of currency has established itself as a popular and viable source of currency across the world because of its autonomy and convenient nature. Different forms of cryptocurrency were invented to serve as an alternative source of currency.

There are hundreds of semiconductor chips that make up the global silicon industry. As technology advances, these chips run powerful computers, the flashy iPhones in our pockets, and even some toothbrushes. More recently and as a result of the pandemic, the demand for semiconductors is continuing to overpower supply. These chips convey basic instructions and make sure businesses are running smoothly. Without these tiny chips, car production has been brought to a halt.

The holiday season may not feel like “the most wonderful time of the year” for many supplies chain and logistics companies this upcoming holiday season. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has come to understand what supply chain management is, as just about everyone has been affected by a supply chain management issue in one way or another; stockouts, delayed package deliveries, and struggling to find certain products on the shelves are struggles that many of us have faced over the last year and a half. Yet, despite the increasing number of vaccinated individuals, we are still expecting to feel the impacts of the pandemic in our supply chains for months to come.

Global inflation is on the rise in 2021. Though inflation has experienced common fluctuations throughout modern history, this occurrence is particularly interesting because it cannot be traced to any typical cause of inflation: today’s increasing prices aren’t caused by a significant rise in consumer demand, they aren’t caused by wage increases, and they aren’t even caused by external cost spikes. Instead, the root of late 2021’s inflation is almost entirely logistical, and it presents itself in the form of supply chain bottlenecks, costly backups that are applying immense upward pressure on prices. Carrying some of the blame for these backups, and in the middle of a desperate scramble for workers, is the trucking industry.

Only a decade or two ago, music enthusiasts had to either purchase physical albums, buy songs and albums on a platform like iTunes, or risk their computer security by downloading music illegally. Today, all of that has changed. Music streaming has disrupted the music industry and rapidly altered the way consumers listen to and purchase music. Music streaming services offer millions of songs from thousands of artists for a recurring fee each month, allowing users to access music at a much cheaper rate than previously possible.

The globalEDGE website offers an Academy section with resources for students, faculty, and teachers. You can access this section by selecting 'Academy' from the selection bar at the top of the globalEDGE homepage, then choosing a page from the drop-down menu based on the information you are looking for. Let's dive into some of the information provided in the Academy section of globalEDGE.

Netflix has been considered the leader in the streaming market since its inception in the late 2000s, and its longevity of success is no mistake. While competition grows fiercer year after year and the U.S. streaming market becomes increasingly saturated, Netflix maintains the largest market share, and its success can be largely contributed to its international presence.

As the global climate change crisis continues to become an increasing focus for government policy and corporate social responsibility, automotive manufacturers around the world are increasing the production and research of electric vehicles (EVs). EV sales, as a percentage of global automotive sales, have grown from 0.6% in 2015 to 2.5% in 2019. As sales of EVs are increasing, consumers are expecting increasing improvements to EV technologies. Some of the largest issues currently affecting EV development are range, charging speed, and safety. Currently, the average range of an EV on the road today is about 197 miles. Often for consumers, this range is not enough regarding the average range of a traditional combustion engine car.