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The purpose of this study is to investigate if a firm's exchange complexity profile (that is, the linkages between the firm and its environment) influences investor behavior at the negotiation table where a firm valuation is derived.

The authors utilize Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Specifically, the authors utilize fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), a QCA variant that allows the researcher to assign graduated membership in sets.

When the authors dichotomize their positions as either higher stakes that favor the seller (high capital, low equity, high valuation) or lower stakes that favor the buyer (low capital, high equity, low valuation), and when the authors focus primarily on the equity outcome, the authors find that investors adopt a reductionist stance that adheres to a transaction cost economics logic under conditions of lower stakes and higher complexity as well as higher stakes and lower complexity conditions. The authors interpret this to mean that equity serves as a counter-balancing lever for a firm's exchange complexity configuration.

On a theoretical level, the authors showcase the exchange complexity framework and differentiate its position within the extant frameworks that address a firm's competitive advantage. More generally, the authors note that this framework brings the discipline of micro-economics and the field of strategic management closer together, providing scholars with a new tool enabling research across industries for the portfolio level of analysis.

The main stance of this paper is to draw an authentic and rigorous outlook in terms of the financial and operational performance of small lodging establishments (SLEs) and put forth achievable and practical economic solutions that demonstrate the relative effectiveness of the adopted measures. This paper also suggests practical solutions to help minimize SLEs' financial vulnerability to long-term crisis and to boost their resilience with relative measures by applying recovery revival strategies for this particular segment of the lodging industry.

The authors have picked a locally owned resort hotel in Central Florida area and structured a real-life, case study-based inductive approach that is purposeful and offers rich economic outlook and analysis for the entire lodging industry, especially for the resort-hotel type of accommodation facilities. The main reason for why they only focus on one company is that they can fully understand the financial effects of COVID-19 on resort type of hotels and layout countering strategies. To achieve paper objectives, they have implemented cost–benefit (C–B), break-even (B-E) analyses along with a sensitivity testing approach.

The most striking result was that during the state-mandated shutdown period in 2020, overhead and overall operational costs associated with room sales and revenues were very high during this period that shrank the contribution margin ratio for rooms CMRw (room) and eventually yielded high sales volumes to be achieved at the B-E points vs lower sales volumes with almost the same average daily rate (ADR) levels needed for the B-E levels.

Future studies should specifically delve further into a portfolio of SLEs in the region or state or nation wise because the units comprising the SLEs might be too small to muster the changes required to bounce forward for the entire lodging industry in the world.

The resort's revenue re-optimization focus should center on financial re-benchmarking and business re-viability stress under different levels of shock scenarios. According to the different scenarios and calibrations for the ADRs, room nights, net present values (NPVs) of cash flows and profit margins derived from our main analyses, minimizing expenses and preserving cash would be the best key strategy for financial recovery during an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

It is obvious that the lodging, hospitality and tourism industry are the hardest-hit industries by the harsh and adverse effects of COVID-19. The effects of pandemic are differently shaped on operations in different industries and subsectors. Therefore, the operational and financial evaluation for the SLEs as the core and a catalyst in the entire lodging industry can shed a light on the strategic financial recovery procedures with broadly applicable real-life and endogenous capabilities and reasoning.

In this study, workplace spirituality is discussed in the context of remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the focus is on the changes in the meaning and function of employees in the organization during the evolutionary process of industrialization and management paradigms. Afterward, conceptual frameworks for spirituality and workplace spirituality are presented, and in the last section, academic studies that deal with workplace spirituality with distance or hybrid work arrangements are included. Early studies offer insights and recommendations on conceptualizing, developing, and managing workplace spirituality. They all emphasize that spirituality is necessary for remote work as a tool to overcome stress and mental health problems and increase employee well-being. Unfortunately, the remote work and workplace spirituality literature is relatively narrow and needs to be expanded.

This case study provides in-depth, practical knowledge to develop business strategies for the management program. After reading this case study, the students will be able to learn about the challenges and problems that service firms face during a crisis, the drastic changes in the market environment due to a crisis and the analysis tools that can be used when analyzing the shifted market environment. By analyzing this case study, students will be trained for the decision-making that arises in the process of crisis management in the hotel industry.

Nam Nghi Resort, situated on the picturesque Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, experienced the tumultuous period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, Nam Nghi was a thriving five-star resort, deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture and renowned for its luxurious amenities and breathtaking location. However, the onset of COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to the hospitality industry, leading to a sharp decline in tourism and revenue. Despite the adversity, Nam Nghi implemented risk management practices successfully and displayed resilience and adaptability. Through rigorous cost minimization, strategic facility upgrades and targeted marketing efforts, Nam Nghi managed to navigate the crisis and gradually rebuild its business as travel restrictions eased. As the industry began to show signs of recovery, the general manager faced new challenges in restoring the resort’s prepandemic vitality. The challenge remained of understanding changing consumer values and market dynamics.

This case study can be used as class material for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. In particular, MBA students in the hospitality industry such as hotels, resorts, travel agencies and restaurants are the target audience.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

The purpose of this study is to understand the rational cogent correlation among the factors that are responsible for the implementation of entrepreneurship to reinstate the severely affected ecosystem during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

This paper attempts to identify the various units of entrepreneurship and public policies of entrepreneurship from the coherent literature review and examine the units' objectives. Examination of these units will help understand how the economy can recover from the COVID-19 impact. Total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and matrix impacts cross multiplication applique and classement (MICMAC) have been used to recognize the factors, which are responsible for detangling the slowdown of the economy.

On the basis of the literature review, a total of 13 factors have been identified. The TISM methodology represents the hierarchical structure of the recognized factors and examines the pros and cons.

The TISM lags to explain the strength and bond among the factors. The MICMAC addresses this problem and advises what factor plays an essential role and which factor impact is the least. An advocate administration of the factors could help to achieve a successful entrepreneurial plan.

An analytic study of the literature review demonstrates the relationship among the units to frame an entrepreneurial plan during the COVID-19 pandemic by using the TISM methodology. Hence, TISM provides reasonable facts to examine why and what factors need more attention for the generation of new business starters in the economic crisis.

We attempt to construct a grey three-way conflict analysis model with constraints to deal with correlated conflict problems with uncertain information.

In order to address these correlated conflict problems with uncertain information, considering the interactive influence and mutual restraints among agents and portraying their attitudes toward the conflict issues, we utilize grey numbers and three-way decisions to propose a grey three-way conflict analysis model with constraints. Firstly, based on the collected information, we introduced grey theory, calculated the degree of conflict between agents and then analyzed the conflict alliance based on the three-way decision theory. Finally, we designed a feedback mechanism to identify key agents and key conflict issues. A case verifies the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed model.

The results show that the proposed model can portray their attitudes toward conflict issues and effectively extract conflict-related information.

By employing this approach, we can provide the answers to Deja’s fundamental questions regarding Pawlak’s conflict analysis: “what are the underlying causes of conflict?” and “how can a viable consensus strategy be identified?”

Distribution network design involves a set of strategic decisions in supply chains because of their long-term impacts on the total logistics cost and environment. To incorporate a trade-off between financial and environmental aspects of these decisions, this paper aims to determine an optimal location, among candidate locations, of a new logistics center, its capacity, as well as optimal network flows for an existing distribution network, while concurrently minimizing the total logistics cost and gas emission. In addition, uncertainty in transportation and warehousing costs are considered.

The problem is formulated as a fuzzy multiobjective mathematical model. The effectiveness of this model is demonstrated using an industrial case study. The problem instance is a four-echelon distribution network with 22 products and a planning horizon of 20 periods. The model is solved by using the min–max and augmented ε-constraint methods with CPLEX as the solver. In addition to illustrating model’s applicability, the effect of choosing a new warehouse in the model is investigated through a scenario analysis.

For the applicability of the model, the results indicate that the augmented ε-constraint approach provides a set of Pareto solutions, which represents the ideal trade-off between the total logistics cost and gas emission. Through a case study problem instance, the augmented ε-constraint approach is recommended for similar network design problems. From a scenario analysis, when the operational cost of the new warehouse is within a specific fraction of the warehousing cost of third-party warehouses, the solution with the new warehouse outperforms that without the new warehouse with respective to financial and environmental objectives.

The proposed model is an effective decision support tool for management, who would like to assess the impact of network planning decisions on the performance of their supply chains with respect to both financial and environmental aspects under uncertainty.

The purpose of this article is to explore how agency is distributed between human actors and nonhuman elements in entrepreneurship.

It is based on an inductive longitudinal case study of a garden in a rural community in northern Sweden. The methodology includes an ethnography of the garden, spanning the course of 16 years, and a careful investigation of the entrepreneurial processes contained within it.

This article identifies and describes different practices to explain how agency is distributed between human actors and nonhuman elements in the garden's context. Three different practices were identified and discussed, namely “calling”, “resisting”, and “provoking”.

Agency/structure constitutes a longstanding conundrum in entrepreneurship and context. This study contributes to the on-going debate on context in entrepreneurship, and introduces a posthumanist perspective—particularly that of distributed agency—to theorising in entrepreneurship. Rather than focussing on a human (hero)-driven change process, induced through the exploitation of material objects, this novel perspective views entrepreneurship as both a human and a nonhuman venture, occurring through interactions located in particular places and times. Coming from the agency/structure dichotomy, this article reaches out for elements traditionally established on the structure side, distributing them to the agency side of the dichotomy. As such, it contributes to an understanding of the agency of nonhuman elements, and how they direct entrepreneurship in context. This theoretical development prepares entrepreneurship theories to be better able to engage with nonhuman elements and provides example solutions for the ongoing climate crisis.

Upon completion of the case study, students should be able to understand how changes in a macro environment affect the competitive landscape in an emerging market; acquire a granular understanding about the logistics industry in an emerging market and the various business models developed to service customer needs; determine the attractiveness and challenges of doing business in a fragmented but sunrise industry in an emerging market; and identify the drivers for growth and profitability in the logistics business.

Manisha Sharaf (she/her) and her co-founders conceived the idea of Truck Hall in 2011 to ride with the tide created by booming public investments in the infrastructure and transportation sector. Truck Hall aimed to improve the efficiency of the logistics industry in India by extensively using technology. However, the market research showed that technology-driven services in logistics faced many challenges owing to low internet penetration in the country, weak network connectivity during transportation and the low literacy rates of the truck drivers who were central to this industry. Between 2015 and 2018, Truck Hall experimented with several business models including load board, brokerage and integrated transporter with the sole purpose of achieving profitable growth in a highly fragmented industry with razor-thin margins. This case documented the dilemma faced by a startup in a high-growth but largely unorganized and unregulated industry in a developing economy. Should Truck Hall continue with the current business model of being a niche player or should it vertically integrate and control major segments of the value chain? Should it compromise on growth to become profitable or first scale up?

This case study can be used at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.