Sustainable and Ethical Trade Strategies in the Luxury Goods Industry: The Role of Trade Diversification in Times of Trade Wars and Geopolitical Risk
Instructions
Your thesis is about comparing companies to see whether more diversified firms perform better during a crisis than less diversified firms. To do this, you first need to clearly adjust your topic so that everything focuses on diversification, firm performance, and one crisis (COVID-19).
You do not need a complicated methodology anymore. You should remove everything related to interviews, surveys, and advanced statistical models. Instead, your study should be based only on secondary data, specifically revenue data from company financial reports.
You will select a group of companies, ideally within the luxury industry, and divide them into two groups: more diversified firms (those offering multiple product categories) and less diversified firms (those focusing on one or two main products). This classification is important because it represents your own analytical contribution.
After that, you choose one crisis period, which should be COVID-19. You then compare each company’s revenue before the crisis (for example, 2018–2019) and during the crisis (2020–2021). To make your analysis stronger, you calculate the percentage change in revenue, which shows how much each firm was affected. You then compare the average changes between diversified and less diversified firms to see which group performed better.
Your literature review should support this idea. You can mention both COVID-19 and the 2008 financial crisis as background, but your main focus should be on diversification and how it helps firms manage risk. You should reduce parts that are too focused on sustainability or broad geopolitical discussions and instead clearly explain why diversified firms are expected to be more resilient. You also need to state a clear research gap: that there is limited direct comparison between diversified and non-diversified firms during crisis periods using firm-level data.
In your results section, you will present what you found by showing how revenues changed for both groups. In your discussion, you explain why these differences exist, linking your findings to theory. In your conclusion, you answer your research question, mention limitations, and suggest future research.
Overall, your thesis should tell one clear story: firms face crises, diversification is expected to reduce risk, and your study tests this by comparing how different firms performed during COVID-19.
And the main argument will be Moderate (not excessive) diversification makes luxury supply chains more resilient.
-
Too little diversification → risky
-
Too much diversification → expensive & complex
So there is an optimal level
-
Concentrated supply chains are risky
-
Diversification reduces risk
-
Traceability improves control and compliance
-
There is a "best level" of diversification
reviewing existing research (main part)
proposing a simple regression model (conceptual)
Geopolitical risk reduces trade, but smart diversification helps firms stay resilient.
Before covid after covid
Conceptual Regression Model (no actual data needed)
-
explain how a regression would look
-
define variables
-
describe expected relationships
If I had data, this is how I would test my idea Should be nearly 20 companies selected, 10 diversified 10 less diversified and Or like 9 diversified 11 less diversified. 10 - 10 will be better.
Template
Abstract
Title of thesis Name [Text of abstract begins here, double spaced, limit to 350 words]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
i 1. INTRODUCTION [Thesis Text, double-spaced]
2. [TITLE OF CHAPTER]
2.1. Subtitle
2.1.1. Subtitle
2.1.2. Subtitle [Thesis Text, double-spaced]
1. REFERENCES
2. APPENDICES (IF APPLICABLE)
There is the thesis proposal as well. some things changed, were removed. you can see what should be done in the text I am sending. please if there are any questions, would be very nice to contact me beforehand.
References
In-line the thesis should incorporate the following content: Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Theory/Research Question, Methods, Analysis, References and Appendices (if necessary).