Business risks

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The term business risks refers to the possibility of a commercial business making inadequate profits (or even losses) due to uncertainties - for example: changes in tastes, changing preferences of consumers, strikes, increased competition, changes in government policy, obsolescence etc. Every business organization faces various risk elements while doing business. Business risk implies uncertainty in profits or danger of loss and the events that could pose a risk due to some unforeseen events in future, which causes business to fail. [1] [2] [3]

For example, a company may face different risks in production, risks due to irregular supply of raw materials, machinery breakdown, labor unrest, etc. In marketing, risks may arise due to fluctuations in market prices, changing trends and fashions, errors in sales forecasting, etc. In addition, there may be loss of assets of the firm due to fire, flood, earthquakes, riots or war and political unrest which may cause unwanted interruptions in the business operations. Thus business risks may take place in different forms depending upon the nature of a company and its production.

Business risks can arise due to the influence by two major risks: internal risks (risks arising from the events taking place within the organization) and external risks (risks arising from the events taking place outside the organization): [4] [5] [6]

Though corporate entities may have an image of risk aversion, they may continue to stake their reputations and indulge in their gambling propensities by sponsoring competitive sports teams.

Many business risks can be related to one another. With the introduction to the Coronavirus in 2019, many businesses fell victim to a lot of risks as a result of the damage to the market. A lot of internal risks arose including the much needed transition to online communication, via Zoom etc., within a business. [7]

A specific example of external risks can be highlighted by the change in the stock market in early 2020. Between late February to late March, out of the 22 stock market trading days, there were 18 drastic stock market jumps. Stock market jumps can ultimately cause stocks to have lower stability and higher volatility. The uncertainty of whether or not a stock is secure indicates a risk of any certain business. [8]

Classification

The business risk is classified into five different main types [9]

  1. Strategic risk: They are the risks associated with the operations of that particular industry. These kind of risks arise from:
    1. Business environment: Buyers and sellers interacting to buy and sell goods and services, changes in supply and demand, competitive structures and introduction of new technologies.
    2. Transaction: Assets relocation of mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, alliances and joint ventures.
    3. Investor relations: Strategy for communicating with individuals who have invested in the business.
  2. Financial risk: These are the risks associated with the financial structure and transactions of the particular industry.
  3. Operational risk: These are the risks associated with the operational and administrative procedures of the particular industry.
  4. Compliance risk (legal risk): These are risks associated with the need to comply with the rules and regulations of the government.
  5. Other risks: There would be different risks like natural disaster (floods) and others depend upon the nature and scale of the industry. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurance</span> Equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another in exchange for payment

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mergers and acquisitions</span> Type of corporate transaction

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. This could happen through direct absorption, a merger, a tender offer or a hostile takeover. As an aspect of strategic management, M&A can allow enterprises to grow or downsize, and change the nature of their business or competitive position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Risk management</span> Identification, evaluation and control of risks

Risk management is the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.

Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources to achieve later benefits". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broader viewpoint, an investment can be defined as "to tailor the pattern of expenditure and receipt of resources to optimise the desirable patterns of these flows". When expenditures and receipts are defined in terms of money, then the net monetary receipt in a time period is termed cash flow, while money received in a series of several time periods is termed cash flow stream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Investment banking</span> Type of financial services company

Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that engages in providing advisory-based services on financial transactions for clients, such as institutional investors, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities, FICC services or research. Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.

In economics, a moral hazard is a situation where an economic actor has an incentive to increase its exposure to risk because it does not bear the full costs of that risk. For example, when a corporation is insured, it may take on higher risk knowing that its insurance will pay the associated costs. A moral hazard may occur where the actions of the risk-taking party change to the detriment of the cost-bearing party after a financial transaction has taken place.

Market risk is the risk of losses in positions arising from movements in market variables like prices and volatility. There is no unique classification as each classification may refer to different aspects of market risk. Nevertheless, the most commonly used types of market risk are:

A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses or gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. A hedge can be constructed from many types of financial instruments, including stocks, exchange-traded funds, insurance, forward contracts, swaps, options, gambles, many types of over-the-counter and derivative products, and futures contracts.

Operational risk is the risk of losses caused by flawed or failed processes, policies, systems or events that disrupt business operations. Employee errors, criminal activity such as fraud, and physical events are among the factors that can trigger operational risk. The process to manage operational risk is known as operational risk management. The definition of operational risk, adopted by the European Solvency II Directive for insurers, is a variation adopted from the Basel II regulations for banks: "The risk of a change in value caused by the fact that actual losses, incurred for inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events, differ from the expected losses". The scope of operational risk is then broad, and can also include other classes of risks, such as fraud, security, privacy protection, legal risks, physical or environmental risks. Operational risks similarly may impact broadly, in that they can affect client satisfaction, reputation and shareholder value, all while increasing business volatility.

Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form of profit, rent, interest, royalties or capital gains. The aim of capital accumulation is to create new fixed and working capitals, broaden and modernize the existing ones, grow the material basis of social-cultural activities, as well as constituting the necessary resource for reserve and insurance. The process of capital accumulation forms the basis of capitalism, and is one of the defining characteristics of a capitalist economic system.

In finance, systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market, as opposed to the risk associated with any one individual entity, group or component of a system, that can be contained therein without harming the entire system. It can be defined as "financial system instability, potentially catastrophic, caused or exacerbated by idiosyncratic events or conditions in financial intermediaries". It refers to the risks imposed by interlinkages and interdependencies in a system or market, where the failure of a single entity or cluster of entities can cause a cascading failure, which could potentially bankrupt or bring down the entire system or market. It is also sometimes erroneously referred to as "systematic risk".

Basel II classified legal risk as a subset of operational risk in 2003. This conception is based on a business perspective, recognizing that there are threats entailed in the business operating environment. The idea is that businesses do not operate in a vacuum and in the exploitation of opportunities and their engagement with other businesses, their activities tend to become subjects of legal liabilities and obligations.

Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institutions, such as insurance companies, pension funds, corporations, charities, educational establishments, or private investors, either directly via investment contracts/mandates or via collective investment schemes like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or Real estate investment trusts.

Financial risk is any of various types of risk associated with financing, including financial transactions that include company loans in risk of default. Often it is understood to include only downside risk, meaning the potential for financial loss and uncertainty about its extent.

International business refers to the trade of Goods and service goods, services, technology, capital and/or knowledge across national borders and at a global or transnational scale.

In finance, risk factors are the building blocks of investing, that help explain the systematic returns in equity market, and the possibility of losing money in investments or business adventures. A risk factor is a concept in finance theory such as the capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing theory and other theories that use pricing kernels. In these models, the rate of return of an asset is a random variable whose realization in any time period is a linear combination of other random variables plus a disturbance term or white noise. In practice, a linear combination of observed factors included in a linear asset pricing model proxy for a linear combination of unobserved risk factors if financial market efficiency is assumed. In the Intertemporal CAPM, non-market factors proxy for changes in the investment opportunity set.

Foreign exchange risk is a financial risk that exists when a financial transaction is denominated in a currency other than the domestic currency of the company. The exchange risk arises when there is a risk of an unfavourable change in exchange rate between the domestic currency and the denominated currency before the date when the transaction is completed.

Governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) is the term covering an organization's approach across these three practices: governance, risk management, and compliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Risk</span> The possibility of something bad happening

In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value, often focusing on negative, undesirable consequences. Many different definitions have been proposed. The international standard definition of risk for common understanding in different applications is "effect of uncertainty on objectives".

Strategic risk is the risk that failed business decisions may pose to a company. Strategic risk is often a major factor in determining a company's worth, particularly observable if the company experiences a sharp decline in a short period of time. Due to this and its influence on compliance risk, it is a leading factor in modern risk management.

References

  1. ↑ "Business Risks". Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Business Risks[ dead link ]
  2. ↑ "Business Risks Explanation|date of publishing=August 2010". Archived from the original on 2013-02-09. Business Risks
  3. ↑ "Investopedia ,definition" . Retrieved 20 Mar 2019. Business risk is the possibility a company will have lower than anticipated profits or experience a loss rather than taking a profit. Business risk is influenced by numerous factors, including sales volume, per-unit price, input costs, competition, the overall economic climate and government regulations.
  4. ↑ "influencing types of business risk". Archived from the original on 2012-11-03. Retrieved 2012-10-01. Influencing factors types in Business Risk
  5. ↑ Miles, D. Anthony (2011). Risk Factors and Business Models: Understanding the Five Forces of Entrepreneurial Risk and the Causes of Business Failure. dissertation.com. p. 1. ISBN   978-1-59942-388-3.
  6. ↑ "Risk Factors". Archived from the original on 2012-07-02. Factors in Business Risk
  7. ↑ Budhwar, Pawan; Cumming, Douglas (2020). "New Directions in Management Research and Communication: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic". British Journal of Management. 31 (3): 441–443. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12426. ISSN   1467-8551. PMC   7361457 .
  8. ↑ "The Unprecedented Stock-Market Reaction to COVID-19". Kellogg Insight. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  9. ↑ Jolly, Adam (2003). Managing Business Risk: A Practical Guide to Protecting Your Business. Kogan Page Limited. pp. 6–7. ISBN   0-7494-4081-3.
  10. ↑ "types". Types of Business Risks
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