Search results

As China has pressed ahead with rural revitalization in recent years, its rural financial sector has also developed rapidly and the financial environment has been greatly improved. But compared with urban areas, the rural financial sector makes rather limited contributions to rural economic development for a variety of reasons, including single types of service providers, narrow coverage, and lack of services and products. The underdevelopment of the rural financial system is closely related to the characteristics of its target customers and the economic system. The deficient rural financial credit system, the low level of IT application, the difficulty in data collection and integration, and the insufficient collateral of farmers pose high costs and huge risks for financial institutions when providing credit and other financial services.

In the present case, fintech and financial innovation complement each other: The application of fintech makes innovation possible, and the need for financial development fuels the development of fintech. Leveraging fintech and new business models, MYbank has overcome the main obstacles in the development of rural finance to provide convenient financial services for farmers and rural MSEs. Fintech is the abbreviation of “financial technology.” It can be understood as the combination of finance and technology for easier understanding, but it is more than that. Fintech refers to the innovation of traditional financial products and services with various technologies to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs. The emergence and development of fintech have led to the creation of new business models, applications, and processes, which have triggered major changes in financial markets, financial institutions, and the ways financial services are delivered, and are reshaping the financial landscapes of countries and even the world.

There are three major problems in the development of rural finance: difficult access to data, difficult risk management, and difficult market penetration. In order to gradually remove the obstacles and guarantee sustainable business development, MYbank has created three new business models with the power of fintech: digital inclusive finance at the county level, industrial finance, and platform finance. With these models, MYbank is searching for a “Chinese solution” to the worldwide problem of rural inclusive finance.

Property development, the built environment and privatisation.

Undergraduate and MA level property development courses, modules covering privatisation within undergraduate, MBA and MA level management programmes.

Property development is complex and diverse. It involves many agents with diverse roles, strategies and actions that affect the return. In a way, privatisation reduces government's financial burdens and offers ease of procedures to agents. This case study investigates privatisation of property development projects by a local authority in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In particular, the study focuses on modes of privatisation (MOP) and the extent to which it affects the return of the projects. The MOP studied are the land swap, land lease and the joint venture development on 15 selected privatisation projects.

Students are expected to be able to understand the MOP for land development projects using Malaysia as an example; evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these MOP; assess the benefits and impacts to the local Malaysian authority, landowners and land developers of MOP; and apply suitable MOP to alternative development projects.

Teaching note.

This case study outlines the marketing, strategic and organizational issues facing the ever-expanding agri-inputs market in India, through the perspective of Agroy – an agri-products company. This case can be used to assist in the teaching courses such as marketing management, rural marketing, business strategy, operations and logistics management, among others, for students of MBA or other specialized courses in management. The case has been developed to make students aware and to understand the arduous nature of setting up a company catering to the huge Indian agri-inputs market. This case delves into the complexities of marketing in rural India that is characterized by low technological awareness, low volumes of digital transactions and immense language barriers. The Indian agricultural market is huge and has undergone a considerable amount of change owing to competition among multinational companies and traditional local micro-retailers. This case discusses the various challenges faced by multinational companies in entering India and how they need to strategize to modify their Western model of a distribution channel which faces huge challenges when put to test in India. Specific learning outcomes include: the case study would help students to comprehend the new business strategies that an MNC could adopt in emerging markets. Some companies work on changing traditional and conventional value chains of activities to fit the emerging market customer’s best and hence companies needs to figure out a unique business model to compete in emerging markets. This case study gives readers the opportunity to think about strategy in an uncertain environment. The case illustrates the challenges associated with innovating new business ideas that would help the company serve a greater number of people from a diverse background. It highlights the importance of thinking about real options, a portfolio of projects and the type of organizational structure required to tackle the uncertainties associated with foreign companies aiming to enter the Indian market. It also explores marketing and distribution issues – which are the type of customers to target and which are the suitable geographic areas with suitable linguistic compatibility in which there shall be ease in doing business. Finally, it is an avenue for students to think about the changes necessary throughout the distribution channel to successfully implement and commercialize a project in rural India. The case is intended to work well as a learning tool for strategy implementation where uncertainty is inherent and as an application to lectures on real options and risk or for discussions related to marketing and distribution channels and its challenges.

The Indian agricultural market plays an important role in India’s economy having a staggering 58 per cent of rural households depending on it as the principal means of livelihood. However they have very small landholdings, and hence, they find it difficult to order either large quantities or in bulk, as a result of which the cost of agricultural inputs gets enhanced. Agroy, an MNC, is one of the many companies that have stepped in to bridge this gap by trying to tap into the huge agricultural market. Agroy aspires to be the “UBER of agriculture.” Agroy is a cloud-based buying platform for farmers to buy agri-inputs efficiently at scale and at the best price from around the world. With big data and smart farming, the company aims to enhance farm sustainability and productivity. Agroy’s competitors like Agro Star and Big Heart also have similar business models and hence the competition is stiff. The three debatable questions that the case poses are: Will Agroy be able to shatter the age-old loyalty that Indian farmers have toward local retailers and other Indian companies that have an existing strong foothold in the market? Will similar distribution models as practiced in developed Western countries work in India, given the distribution challenges in deep rural Indian hinterland? Will Agroy be able to create sustainable business models by marketing agri-inputs at low prices in India?

MBA in courses such as entrepreneurial marketing, strategic marketing, agricultural marketing.

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 8: Marketing.

The learning objectives of this case include:

▪ Outline the brand repositioning approaches that Equity Bank used in its various stages of growth.

▪ Identify the impact of Equity’s brand repositioning in supporting its growth.

▪ Develop a brand repositioning framework for Equity bank as a fintech.

▪ Identify the theoretical frameworks that informed Equity’s brand repositioning during the various growth stages.

▪ Suggest a theoretical framework that would help Equity to reposition the new brand in the market.

In March 2020, the Government of Kenya declared a lockdown to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown of entire economic sectors put pressure on the adoption of technology to deliver services such as education, training and financial services. Banks had to innovate ways of supporting customers transactions with minimal physical and cash contact. Equity Bank had been implementing a digital banking strategy which had demonstrated successful adoption. Covid-19 accelerated the adoption and usage of Equity Bank’s digital banking by consumers. The bank found itself in a new territory competing fiercely with new and more agile fintechs. Consequently, Dr James Mwangi, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group, was contemplating the possibility of bringing forward the bank's strategic intention of repositioning as a fintech. He was convinced that such a move would bring massive success to the bank’s digital banking strategy, achieve enhanced efficiency, improve customer experience and attract a new segment of digital-savvy customers. But he needed to carry the Board, his management team and customers along in this repositioning strategy without sacrificing the gains made in the consumers' minds about Equity's brand as a bank.

This case can be taught to graduate-level students of marketing courses. It can also be taught to participants of executive education undertaking short courses in in business management and entrepreneurship.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Retailing.

Undergraduate and Master's level business and management courses.

This case looks at the second largest oil company in India (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)) and examines an innovative services marketing concept that they introduced into the market in India for the first time, namely, one-stop truck shops. These new format truck-stops were targeted at the highway-based truckers in India who earlier had to stop off at multiple locations to eat and re-fuel increasing their on-road time and reducing their efficiency, much to the chagrin of their truck-fleet owners.

Students will be expected to build their knowledge of retailing in developing markets using the example of BPCL as a learning tool. The case examines differences in consumer behavior in developed vs developing markets, paying particular attention to the required need to differentiate the retail approach to suit the market.

Teaching note (with photographs).

Marketing.

The case should ideally be discussed in an advanced second year MBA course or towards the end of a first year course where the students are already exposed to the basics of marketing. The case works well in courses on destination marketing, strategic marketing, campaign management, entrepreneurship. It also works well with executives, the case discussion affording the instructor an opportunity to illuminate the complexity of designing and implementing marketing strategy.

Two young MBAs, each with a marketing specialization working in a bank, left their jobs and started their own company by buying a rubber plantation business from another businessman. The businessman was one of the co-owners of the “Ocean World Water Park” theme park (amusement park) close to Bhubaneswar-Cuttack twin city. The amusement park had good potential as it was located in an area with exponential growth of young executives having high disposable incomes. But the business performed poorly because of management ineffectiveness. The case explores the possibility of a turnaround.

The case: sensitizes students about the commercial implications of their marketing decisions by giving them adequate data to work on evaluating the revenue and profit impact of marketing initiatives on business; and helps them to understand that promotional variables are not independent in nature and hence separating the impact of one promotion when a large number of initiatives are operational, is not very dependable. Though the case provides a particular way of attempting to solve the problem, it does not lead to unique solutions.

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

This case study has been prepared after thoroughly studying the Indian wine industry. Secondary data for the value of wine imported in India has been taken from the website of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Data for GDP per capita for India has been taken from World Development Indicators, World Bank. Data for revenue generation of top five countries have been sourced from Statista Report on Indian wine market. Fictitious names are used for the Winery (Romaniszyn) and the individual (Harish G.) working there.

This case revolves around accounting complexities for starting a winery in India. A new vineyard comes with the challenge of the gestation period (five years), during which it would not generate revenue. Harish G. was adept at business development and had experience working with an Italian winery. He was unaware of how difficult accounting decisions would be, including determining the quantum of funds required, ascertaining different financial options to purchase assets and meeting cash requirements. He knew he would not be able to generate any sales for five years at the newly formed winery; the grapevines imported from New Zealand took that long to reach maturity. Furthermore, given that Harish was starting a new brand of wine, he also faced constraints with attracting new customers.

This case can be used in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in the introductory session of a financial accounting course. It is designed to approach basic accounting concepts, permitting the class to discuss and focus on the principal thought process of starting a real business and accounting for the transactions as and when they occur rather than only on mathematical computations. The objective of this case study is attained by involving the students in recording various accounting transactions and decisions the winery’s management must take over the time from early plantation to bottling of the wine. Every decision assesses the students’ comprehension of accounting concepts by making them analyze and resolve the accounting issues raised.

In a typical strategy course, growth strategies like mergers and acquisitions (corporate strategy) are introduced in the second half of the course. To analyze the case, students will use strategies such as Porter’s five forces and resource-based view and will discuss why firms pursue mergers as a growth strategy, along with sources of synergies and risks in mergers. Finance theory used includes analyzing a given discounted cash flow analysis and perform a comparable multiples analysis to find the value of a merger target.

The industry and financial information in the case comes from publicly available sources, including company 10K reports, business press reports and publicly available industry reports. The information about Lockheed Martin’s strategy comes from interviews with Peter Clyne, former vice president for Lockheed Martin’s IS&GS division. He then held the same position for Leidos Holding Corp., after the IS&GS division was divested and incorporated into Leidos.

This case is an interdisciplinary case containing aspects of strategy and finance. Lockheed Martin made a strategic move in 2016, to divest its Information Systems & Global Strategies Division (IS&GS), which engaged in government consulting, primarily in the defense and aerospace industries. Lockheed wanted to reassess its decision to divest consulting, given the high growth rates expected in this business, particularly in cybersecurity consulting. On the other hand, if Lockheed decided to maintain its hardware focus, it wanted to expand its offerings. In addition to a strategy analysis, two possible target firms can be analyzed: Fortinet and Maxar.

This case raises a broad set of issues related to the evaluation of M&A transactions across two different industries and corporate strategy, as it relates to strategic fit of the potential targets and LM’s current capabilities. It is appropriate for the core course in strategy at the MBA or senior undergraduate level. It can also be assigned to specialized courses in Mergers and Acquisitions. It is not appropriate for a lower level strategy or finance course, as it requires students to have prior knowledge of basic finance valuation techniques.

Micro Finance Institution (MFI) named Rojiroti had been doing good work for weaker sections of the society and had brought about significant transformation in the lives of poor people, especially the Scheduled Castes, in villages of Patna district, the capital city of Bihar, India. Rojiroti was run by Centre for Promoting Sustainable Livelihood (CPSL) and had tested successfully a unique innovative model in micro financing which focused on helping the weaker sections by addressing their imminent needs which usually required very small loan amounts. With the various types of benefits people got from buying government subsidized ration to health and education in family to construct home or buy small livelihood assets. The beneficiaries developed high level of respect and trust for the MFI, Rojiroti. Rojiroti had received international recognition from universities such as University of Nottingham, UK; the University was not only researching on the model and its contributions to society, but also had supported it with funding to cater to its audience. Rojiroti did not believe in just providing finance to people like other microfinance institutions (MFI) or corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding by private and public sector organizations; its model focused more on creating capacities in the beneficiaries to sustain their livelihoods. However, after a decades time, Sunil, the protagonist in the case found himself in a situation where he had to decide for the future journey of Rojiroti after having reached a decent stage of growth The case discusses the journey of Rojiroti where the protagonist Sunil had a significant role to play and dwells upon the Rojiroti business model, its beneficiaries and value offerings to them, the changing environment outside and leaves the discussion open on the question of the choice of best road suited for Rojiroti.

The case is intended for the course on Strategic Management with a focus on business models topic. The case introduces the working of social cooperative business model and the nuances around it which is very much pertinent in today’s times where social enterprises have gained space in business and where businesses work around inclusive business models. The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organization from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organisation from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

“Originally as a business providing community life services since its founding in 2017, Dingdong (Cayman) has transformed itself into a fresh e-commerce company. After making adjustments to its business model and operating strategy for three times, Dingdong (Cayman) has completed the strategic transition from grocery surrogate shopping to comprehensive self-operation, and built its own commercial fortress. In 2019, the total revenue of the company was five billion yuan. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, its monthly revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan in February 2020, and the year's total revenue was expected to hit 15∼18 billion yuan. To date, Dingdong (Cayman) has formed a supply chain fully based on digital operation and built a commercial fortress in the fresh e-commerce industry. Despite this, its future prospect is not free from challenge. This case mainly deals with the following questions: How about the strategic positioning and core competitiveness of Dingdong (Cayman) in its early days? In the process of rapid expansion, what are the advantages and problems in its business model? How can the digitally operated supply chain support its continuous expansion in the future?”