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Drawing on 10,000 interviews with company leaders and international forecast data, this report considers the outlook for the global economy and what this means for business growth prospects in 2015.

New research from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) reveals that while business confidence in 2014 climbed to levels not seen since before the financial crisis, a recent spate of uncertainty is weighing on growth prospects for the year ahead.

Efficiency and cost savings are big business in hospitality and tourism. It's hard to think of another sector which was such an early adopter of environmentally-friendly business practices.

Ed Nusbaum, global CEO of Grant Thornton, discusses the Q3 global economic outlook and finds the slowdown in Germany threatening eurozone and world growth prospects.

Outsourcing remains widely utilized by businesses across both sides of the Atlantic. The UK is seeing increasing utilization of outsourcing services across a number of industries, including the IT, HR, tax, and finance and accounting (F&A) functions within companies. And a recent survey shows that this continues to be attractive to companies within the USA, UK and EU.

The third edition in our 'Future of Europe' series looks at three distinct aspects of the regional business, economic and political landscape: recovery, integration and expansion.

I must admit that the optimism of business leaders around the world evident in our quarterly International Business Report (IBR) economic update was almost as surprising as it was pleasing.

We launched our annual M&A report – ‘Dynamic businesses at the forefront of M&A optimism’ – in Hong Kong last week. The report has provoked a good deal of debate and I just wanted to share two highlights from the data.

Denmark has made some fantastic television dramas over the past few years. ‘The Killing’ and ‘Borgen’ have been compulsive viewing in the Lagerberg household. Both place intelligent, strident women as the main characters and, in the case of political drama, Borgen, imitate life itself by prophetically telling the tale of a female Prime Minister – Helle Thorning-Schmidt becoming the first Prime Minister of Denmark in 2011.

GrowthiQ: Insights to help your business grow

I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal the other day which suggested that my region could broadly be thought of as two separate entities.

I was interviewed this week by CNBC and BBC World News to discuss the economic outlook for 2014, drawing on the views of 3,500 senior executives in 45 economies we interview for our International Business Report (IBR).

According to our Global Dynamism Index (GDI) 2013, Australia is the economy businesses should be looking at. It climbed to the top of the ranking of 60 of the largest economies in the world this year, up from seventh place in 2012.

For tech companies, the regulatory environment is tougher now than ever before. To protect national interests, governments are using compliance to restrict companies that could potentially disrupt established industries which can creating a knock on effect for tech companies. Rapidly expanding companies also face a wider range of individual regulations as they expand into new territories, be it employment law, taxation, product safety or licensing.

Business-minded technologists have always planned for global business empires. It used to take decades before they could grow globally. Today, it can be more or less instantaneous – creating a new set of opportunities and threats.

As global attitudes towards tax change, tech companies need to future-proof their tax practices to stand up to enhanced scrutiny. The way in which companies markets and sells its services can also have tax implications. Therefore, one thing is clear – tax matters, and ambitious tech companies need to develop a tax strategy that can keep pace with their growth aspirations.