True applications of Economics from the business world

Abstract

By understanding the underlying principles of economics and applying them effectively, businesses can enhance their strategic capabilities and improve their overall performance. However, despite the applications and insights that economics offers to the business world, students often find economics courses unattractive, perceiving them as challenging and inapplicable to the real world. In this paper, we address this issue by providing actual business scenarios that two of the authors have encountered during their careers in the consulting industry. The cases illustrate how existing companies apply economics on a daily basis. We present three teaching guides, each featuring a real-world business scenario. This paper builds on previous work of Milovanska-Farrington et al. (2024a) who incorporate the stories and business acumen of Gen Z entrepreneurs to engage the students in the economics classroom. Given the interest of Gen Z in entrepreneurship and business, this paper provides an opportunity for educators to demonstrate business applications of foundation-level economics concepts in an engaging way that resonates with Gen Z and could increase students’ interest in Economics by bridging the gap between business and economics.

Keywords: application, business, case studies, foundation economics, teaching economics

JEL Classification: A20, A21