Search results

Marketing management, brand management, brand loyalty, brand consumer behavior.

MBA program or the Executive Education program.

Anubhav Jain, Marketing Head of Digamber Industries, is concerned about the national launch of Surya Gold tea. The brand had been doing well in Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh, India) with almost 20 per cent market share. However, market reports suggested that retailers primarily pushed the brand and consumers had little loyalty for Surya Gold. Owing to lower repeat purchases, Jain had to spend large amount of money on consumer acquisition. For the national launch, a large base of loyal consumers was critical for business growth. He understood brand loyalty but found it a difficult proposition to relate from consumers' perspective. Market consultants were hired to conduct a qualitative research based on Susan Fournier's work on consumer-brand relationships. The case gives an account of conversations with professed lovers of tea to understand consumer behavior toward tea, including why people drink tea, how they choose their brands and what makes them re-buy or change brands. The case makes certain propositions around brand loyalty, which Jain had to decode to understand tea consumers in India, how brand loyalty develops and changes over time, and hence, how should he plan his marketing strategy. The case attempts to help students critique traditional definitions of brand loyalty, understand and evaluate the concept from consumers' perspective and highlight its importance in marketing strategy planning by explaining evolution, various types and intensity of brand loyalty.

The broad objective of the case is to strengthen participants' understanding of brand loyalty concept and also appreciate the importance and role of brands in consumer's life. The case can be used for MBA or executive education in brand management or consumer behavior courses. The specific objectives of this case are to help students appreciate the variations in brand loyalty across consumers and critically assess the traditional definition of loyalty, highlight the connection between the consumer personality and the brand attributes, help them understand how the concept of brand loyalty and brand relationship affects consumers' attitude and behavior, help students understand as to why brand loyalty develops and how it can be maintained and expose students to qualitative unstructured data and give them an experience of using it for managerial use.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes enclosed.

Julie Smith, brand manager for dog food manufacturer Pedigree, has to determine how best to jump-start growth in the slumping business. The (A) case centers on the debate over which type of strategy to pursue, brand building versus in-store activity, while the (B) case focuses on the concept of cause marketing as a growth strategy.

The case examines the common challenge of building a very well-established business, and can be used to teach established business growth strategy, advertising, and cause marketing.

ThinkAlike, a fictitious marketing consulting firm, was asked by TiVo to segment the market for its new digital video recorder (DVR) product. Students are asked to analyze realistic data and generate segments that will be useful for TiVo s marketing strategy.

This case can facilitate students to develop a deeper understanding of the social mission-based business enterprises, startups, solopreneurship, one-man companies, women-led businesses, benefits and challenges associated with service innovation and design thinking, along with the competitive forces and funding problems in scaling up a social enterprise. It can be used for the BBA, MBA or Executive MBA programs for courses on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, design thinking, business strategy and service innovation.

This case is suitable for both the undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship, innovation and startup management.

Dr Anita Sharma was a solopreneur who started a car driving school in Amritsar, Punjab, deploying specially designed, retrofitted cars to train People with Disabilities (PwDs). She demonstrated exceptional prowess in defying the social taboos and popular stigmas associated with PwDs by establishing “Drive On My Own” (DOMO) as an innovative project, a first-of-its-kind car-driving training school in India to provide an accessible car-drive learning experience to PwDs. She ignored the extreme sensitivity displayed in the social behavior of people around her, who were either were too sensitive for the PwDs by treating them as Person with Special Abilities (PwSAs) or were completely insensitive toward them or their problems thinking that their disabilities are their misfortunes. This continuum of insensitive to overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwSAs made this service innovation possible by design thinking. This entrepreneurial initiative enabled solo as well as group travel and tours possible for PwDs, by bringing in new inclusive modes of communication and solutions for self-mobility. It has also paved a path for social inclusiveness and livelihood sustainability by bringing positive change in the lives of PwDs and their family members. Moreover, a new design implementation is in her plans, as she wants to redesign these cars further to be accessible for people using wheelchairs too. The potential growth of this solopreneur’s social enterprise calls for scaling up the business, but it may also attract competition as the existing big tech-travel automobile companies may enter this domain soon with their driver-less or self-drive cars. Considering all these factors, Dr Anita Sharma faced multiple dilemmas: Can she formalize her project? What can be the type of business she can proceed with? How can she sustain and scale up her women-led project, better qualifying as a PwD-led social enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the design implementation, funding the project and facing competition while scaling up DOMO as her social and service innovation?

Thus, this case study enables the application of concepts and theories of business enterprise, business funding, service innovation and design thinking. It also helps recognize and understand the challenges related to social entrepreneurship.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship.

The case has been used at Master's level but it has direct application to any MBA programme or entrepreneurship module.

Adrian Gore started Discovery in 1992 with seed-funding of R10 million from merchant banking group, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), as a health insurance company within the RMB stable. By 2009, Discovery had become a large, listed, financial services institution employing more than 5,000 people and comprising not only Discovery Health (DH), but also Discovery Life (DL), Discovery Invest (DI) and Discovery Vitality (a wellness programme). In addition, it had operations in the USA, where it licensed Vitality for use by employers and other health insurers, and in the UK where it operated two joint ventures with The Prudential plc – Pruhealth and Prulife.

To understand the similarities and differences between corporate and start-up entrepreneurship; to understand the entrepreneurial process within an established organization; to explore the environment within an established company in terms of how much it supports or constrains entrepreneurship; and to look at creative ways to overcome obstacles to entrepreneurship in established companies.

Teaching notes.

The case deals with project management principles that are required for implementing a social project in India.

The study has been carried out at primary schools in an underdeveloped state, namely, Odisha, in India.

The case illustrates a project management approach for improving primary education in a government set up. The bureaucracy set up in education in a state like Odisha, India, needs to undergo radical changes. To be effective, an education system requires an optimal integration of the three main components, namely, people, infrastructure (this includes technology) and pedagogical processes. Using a public–private partnership model, American India Foundation (AIF) through its Digital Equalizer (DE) Program has been able to make a positive impact in an underdeveloped tribal dominated district like Keonjhar. The case study also illustrates the detailed execution plan predicated on total system planning, required to achieve this amount of success. The case study also explains how to measure success through different metrics where intervention has to be at multiple levels. The learning from the case study can also be adopted for designing an implementation strategy in other states.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: how to approach implementation of technology-based intervention with involvement of all stakeholders; learn project management techniques related to digital learning model implementation; understand the DE methodology; and understand the challenges faced while implementing the DE Program.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This case was developed to explore what social entrepreneurship looks like in an emerging market context. It tells the story of Neil Campher, a self-identified social entrepreneur working in South Africa, a country that has recently been awarded middle income status by the World Bank despite sharing a ranking with Syria on the Human Development Index. In environments of deep market failure, what does social enterprise look like? and can you sustain change in communities of extreme poverty? The case looks at the academic characteristics of social entrepreneurs and applies them to Neil to see if he “qualifies”. It has a particular focus on the bricoleur social entrepreneur. It explores concepts of poverty, and looks at sustainability, achieved through asset-based community development. It explores the need for organisations to transition in response to the environment and provides a tool to assess sustainability. The value of the paper is in exploring what social entrepreneurship looks like in an emerging market context. It also raises important questions on sustainability in environments which are inherently constrained.

This case study is aimed at students of social entrepreneurship, development studies, sustainable livelihoods and asset-based development. It is written at an Honours level and is therefore appropriate for use in customised or short programmes. The case study is a good introduction for students with a background in business (e.g. Diploma in Business Administration/MBA/custom programmes) who are wanting to understand social enterprise and blended theories of social and economic change.

The case study follows self-identified social entrepreneur Neil Campher in the grime and crime-ridden township of Helenvale, outside Port Elizabeth, in South Africa. Campher has given up his glitzy career as a financier in the economic hub of Johannesburg and returned to his home town, drawn by a need to give back. Helenvale used to be where he and his school friends would hide from the apartheid police, but as an adult, his friends are focused on strengthening and progressing the community. Campher’s entry point to change is a small waste recycling project, and the case study looks at how he uses this as a lever to achieve deeper structural change in the community. The teaching case exposes several questions around social entrepreneurship and change: what is social entrepreneurship in an emerging context and is Campher a social entrepreneur? What is community led change and can it be sustainable? Campher’s dilemma is around sustainability – has his extensive involvement of the community been enough to achieve progress in Helenvale?

The case study gives insight into social entrepreneurship in a developing country context. It highlights the nuances in definition and introduces the importance of context in shaping the social entrepreneur. The case is an opportunity for students to interrogate ideas on poverty and classical interpretations of social entrepreneurship and relate them to a small community that mirrors the macro country context in South Africa. The case study shows how asset-based approaches to development are interlinked with basic principles of social entrepreneurship. It shows that sustainability is more than a secure and predictable income stream and the need for community engagement and commitment to the solution. In tackling these issues, the case questions sustainability potential and the need for the organisation to transition to respond to opportunity and the changing environment.

Video X1 5minute video interview with Neil Campher 5min: YouTube Video of Campher from Interview 1 www.leadingchange.co.za (live from 01 April 2016) Video News report of gang violence in Helenvale 3min: YouTube. This is a quick visual introduction to Helenvale. It is a news clip, so is particularly focused on the angle of the story. It includes interviews with residents. The site www.youtube.com/watch?v=TluLpTuEq8I Northern Areas burning 2min: YouTube is a collection of video footage from a local reporter which shows Helenvale and its surroundings. The site www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCW-Hp24vMI shows the Text Global Competitiveness Report: South Africa; the first page gives additional information on social and economic development in South Africa, highlighting developed/developing country attributes. It also highlights how Helenvale is a microcosm of the negative social development indicators in South Africa (http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2014-2015/economies/#economy=ZAF). Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to enable the application of Value Proposition Canvas and Business Model Canvas to evaluate an opportunity; understand the commonalities and differences between social and commercial enterprises; and recognize the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/economic logic.

Neha Arora demonstrated exceptional capabilities of defying the social stigma associated with People with Disabilities (PwDs) to establish Planet Abled, a first in the world venture to provide accessible leisure excursions to PwDs. This entrepreneurial initiative enabling group and solo travel for PwDs as inclusive tourism has created the possibility of social sustainability by bringing change in the lives of PwDs and their family members by ignoring either the insensitive or overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwDs. Its potential growth qualifies for scaling-up, but it can also attract the existing big travel solution providers to enter this domain. Considering these facts, Neha faces multiple dilemmas: How can she sustain and scale up the early momentum created by her enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/ economic logic while scaling-up Planet Abled?

This case study is suitable for both undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Resource-based view (RBV) theory (Barney, 1991; Barney and Mackey, 2016; Nagano, 2020) states that a firm’s tangible and intangible resources can represent a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), a long-term competitive advantage that is extremely difficult to duplicate by another firm, when it meets four criteria (i.e. not imitable, are rare, valuable and not substitutable). In the context of this case, we believe there are three sources of SCA to be discussed using RBV – the major league soccer (MLS) team player roster, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to exploit this roster and the league’s single-entity structure: • MLS players: it has been widely acknowledged that a firm’s human resource talent, which includes professional soccer players (Omondi-Ochieng, 2019), can be a source of SCA. For example, from an RBV perspective, a player on the Los Angeles Galaxy roster: > cannot play for any other team in any other league at the same time (not imitable and are rare), > would already be a competitive player, as he is acquired to play in the highest professional league in the country (valuable) and > it would be almost impossible to find a clone player matching his exact talent characteristic (not substitutable) anywhere else. Of course, the roster mix of players must be managed by a capable coach who is able to exploit these resources and win championships (Szymanski et al., 2019). Therefore, it is the strategic human resource or talent management strategies of the professional soccer team roster that will enable a team to have the potential for an SCA (Maqueira et al., 2019). • Technology: technology can also be considered a source of SCA. However, this has been a source of contention. The argument is that technology is accessible to any firm that can afford to purchase it. Logically, any MLS team (or for that matter any professional soccer team) can acquire or build an AI system. For many observers, the only obvious constraint is financial resources. As we discuss in other parts of the case study, there is a fan-based assumption that what transpired in major league baseball (MLB) may repeat in the MLS. The movie Moneyball promoted the use of sabermetrics in baseball when making talent selection (as opposed to relying exclusively on scouts), which has now evolved into the norm of using technology-centered sports analytics across all MLB teams. In short, where is the advantage when every team uses technology for talent management? However, if that is the case, why are the MLB teams continuing to use AI and now the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League are following suit? We believe RBV theorists have already provided early insights: > “the exploitation of physical technology in a firm often involves the use of socially complex firm resources. Several firms may all possess the same physical technology, but only one of these firms may possess the social relations, cultural traditions, etc., to fully exploit this technology to implementing strategies…. and obtain a sustained competitive advantage from exploiting their physical technology more completely than other firms” (Barney, 1991, p. 110). • MLS League Single-Entity Structure: In contrast to other professional soccer leagues, the MLS has one distinct in-built edge – its ownership structure as a single entity, that is as one legal organization. All of the MLS teams are owned by the MLS, but with franchise operators. The centralization of operations provides the MLS with formidable economies of scale such as when investing in AI technologies for teams. Additionally, this ownership structure accords it leverage in negotiations for its inputs such as for player contracts. The MLS is the single employer of all its players, fully paying all salaries except those of the three marquees “designated players.” Collectively, this edge offers the MLS unparalleled fluidity and speed as a league when implementing changes, securing stakeholder buy-ins and adjusting for tailwinds. The “socially complex firm resources” is the unique talent composition of the professional soccer team and most critically its single entity structure. While every team can theoretically purchase an AI technology talent management system, its application entails use across 30 teams with a very different, complex and unique set of player talents. The MLS single-entity structure though is the resource that supplies the stability required for this human-machine (technology) symbioses to be fully accepted by stakeholders such as players and implemented with precision and speed across the entire league. So, there exists the potential for each MLS team (and the MLS as a league) to acquire SCA even when using “generic” AI technology, as long as other complex firm factors come into play.

This case relied on information that was widely reported within media, press interviews by MLS officials, announcements by various organizations, journal articles and publicly available information on MLS. All of the names and positions, in this case, are actual persons.

MLS started as a story of dreaming large and of quixotic adventure. Back in 1990, the founders of the MLS “sold” the league in exchange for the biggest prize in world soccer – the rights to host the 1994 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup before they even wrote up the business plan. Today, the MLS is the highest-level professional men’s soccer league competition in the USA. That is a major achievement in just over 25-years, as the US hosts a large professional sports market. However, MLS has been unable to attract higher broadcasting value for its matches and break into the highest tier of international professional soccer. The key reason is that MLS matches are not deemed high quality content by broadcasters. To achieve higher quality matches requires many inputs such as soccer specific stadiums, growing the fan base, attracting key investors, league integrity and strong governance, all of which MLS has successfully achieved since its inception. However, attracting high quality playing talent is a critical input the MLS does not have because the league has repeatedly cautioned that it cannot afford them yet to ensure long-term financial sustainability. In fact, to guarantee this trade-off, the MLS is one of the only professional soccer leagues with an annual salary cap. So, the question is: how does MLS increase the quality of its matches (content) using relatively low cost (low quality) talent and still be able to demand higher broadcast revenues? One strategy is for the MLS to use AI playing technology to extract higher quality playing performance from its existing talent like other sports leagues have demonstrated, such as the NFL and NBA. To implement such a radical technology-centric strategy with its players requires the MLS to navigate associated issues such as human-machine symbioses, risking fan acceptance and even altering brand valuation.

The case is written and designed for a graduate-level (MBA) class or an upper-level undergraduate class in areas such as contemporary issues in management, human resource management, talent management, strategic management, sports management and sports marketing. The case is suitable for courses that discuss strategy, talent management, human resource management and brand strategy.

The first three years of operation of the West Kendall Baptist Hospital (WKBH) in Miami, Florida provided a “poster child” for efficient and cost effective healthcare delivery to the West Kendall community that it served. The hospital leadership and management team exemplified a quality-oriented staff that moved as a cohesive and dedicated organization. WKBH exceeded every budget prediction and showed a profit in year 3, well before expected. Then came the winds of regulatory change. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the attendant imposition of new reimbursement metrics, the picture at WKBH changed almost overnight. By the first quarter of 2016, WKBH started to lose money in excess of budget predictions despite its increased patient admissions, careful financial planning, expense reductions, quality service, and excellence in patient care delivery. A serious financial crisis was looming with little relief in sight. The hospital management team began to search for solutions.

The research methodology includes collecting quantitative data: original financial statements and financial data from WKBH, as well as qualitative data: interviews of hospital administrators and historical information.

Graduate capstone course in a finance course; masters in health administration; and/or the MBA program.

While it is clear that the ACA was designed with all good intentions, it has created substantial and perhaps, unanticipated financial burdens for caregivers. These issues are not only faced by WKBH. Most hospitals could relate to one or more of the four questions examined as part of this learning process. Graduate MBA students worked with the hospital to identify, define, focus, and resolve difficult quantitative and qualitative issues faced by the hospital as a result of major changes in the regulatory environment with the passage of the ACA. This case focuses upon the current reimbursement environment that has only recently emerged as a result of the implementation of the ACA.