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After completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand the challenges faced by cocoa farmers in developing countries and their impact on the cocoa value chain, describe the need for a business to create a business model that offers social impact in small developing economies, explore innovative business models, such as vertical integration, for addressing transparency and fair compensation issues in agricultural supply chains, analyze the role that start-ups can play in disrupting the commodities supply chain and building a national competitive advantage and examine how a values-driven business can gain the trust of stakeholders and create a profitable ecosystem.

This case study describes the innovative business model of Inaru Corporation, a pioneering venture founded by two sisters, Janett Liriano and Erika, aimed at revolutionizing the cocoa industry in the Dominican Republic. This case study outlines the challenges faced by cocoa farmers in the country, including low productivity, exploitation by middlemen and lack of value addition. Inaru’s innovative business model aimed to disrupt the traditional supply chains by prioritizing fair compensation for farmers, investing in sustainable practices and vertically integrating cocoa production from farming to manufacturing. Through direct relationships with producers, profit-sharing agreements, and a commitment to ethical business practices, Inaru sought to empower cocoa farmers and cultivate a more equitable and sustainable cocoa industry. Inaru was a model for ethical and caring business practices where it shared the profits with its farmers. By operating a profit-sharing model and sharing its fortune with other women, Inaru was helping create gender equity in the cocoa sector. Inaru planned to scale its business model to other cocoa-producing countries and even transfer its business model strategy to other commodities beginning with the coffee segment in Dominican Republic. By exploring Inaru’s case study, students gain a deep understanding of how businesses can drive positive change, create value for stakeholders and contribute to sustainable development goals.

This case was written for use in teaching graduate and postgraduate management courses in entrepreneurship and economics, politics and business environment.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Operations Management Quality Management.

The case can be used in a number of course contexts, including undergraduate and graduate courses in operations management and quality management.

Central Tobacco Plant (CTP) is a tobacco processing and packaging company, operating in the Central America and Caribbean region. This case focuses on a waste measurement exercise conducted in the cigarette production department of CTP, which was commissioned by George Edwards, the Secondary Manufacturing Department Manager. The reason for the exercise was the announcement that CTP could possibly face a plant audit, where a poor result could cause the shifting of manufacturing of some products, or, in the worst case scenario, all of it product lines, to one of the larger, and more efficient manufacturing plants in the Central America and Caribbean region. The waste measurement exercise is carried out as a three-week student–industry project by two students pursuing an MSc programme at the local university, who are mentored by both Edwards and by a university supervisor. At the end of the exercise, Edwards needs to consider the appropriateness of the current waste measurement system, the quantities of waste produced and opportunities to reduce waste.

The case has four primary learning objectives: to illustrate the role of performance measurement in process improvement, to explore the perspective of lean manufacturing in waste management, to apply basic quality tools in the analysis of a manufacturing process and to identify opportunities for process improvement.

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics

This case study can be used in the following subject areas: tourism management; tourism policy; tourism planning and development; destination marketing and management; hospitality and tourism management; special event planning and management; and attraction management.

This case study is useful to both undergraduate and graduate students specializing in hospitality and tourism management.

This case study explored the nature of two forms of tourism development; resort-based and resource-based, and aimed to determine which is the more viable and sustainable option for the future of tourism in Jamaica, an island destination in the Caribbean which depends highly on the tourism industry. The literature established that both forms of tourism are challenged by several and varying factors and so their synergistic integration appears to be the most functional option for sustainable tourism development in Jamaica along with the involvement of the relevant stakeholders.

The students should be able to:

• Distinguish between resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism by identifying the elements and attributes that make them different.

• Explain the usefulness and drawbacks of both types of tourism model.

• Discuss the nature of culture and heritage tourism and eco-tourism.

• Analyze Jamaica's tourism model from the nineteenth to the twenty-firstst century by assessing the changes and developments.

• Discuss the role of government in facilitating the development of a “wholisitic tourism model” that will facilitate the synergy of resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism.

• Assess the role of the private sector in encouraging and facilitating resource-based tourism.

Distinguish between resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism by identifying the elements and attributes that make them different.

Explain the usefulness and drawbacks of both types of tourism model.

Discuss the nature of culture and heritage tourism and eco-tourism.

Analyze Jamaica's tourism model from the nineteenth to the twenty-firstst century by assessing the changes and developments.

Discuss the role of government in facilitating the development of a “wholisitic tourism model” that will facilitate the synergy of resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism.

Assess the role of the private sector in encouraging and facilitating resource-based tourism.

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 conceptually and empirically analyzed the tourism model in Jamaica to ascertain whether or not the future of Jamaica's tourism should remain dependent on resort-based tourism or should it opt for resource-based tourism as a more viable and sustainable option. The discussion however, indicates that resort-based tourism can synergize with resource-based tourism to achieve sustainable development along with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders including the government, hotel operators and the residents. The case synopsis likewise presented a concise summary of the literature reviewed regarding the concepts of resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism; and the case of Jamaica's tourism.

The learning outcomes are intended to guide the teaching- learning process and stimulate students' understanding of the concepts of resort-based tourism and resource-based tourism and their specific implications in terms of tourism development in Jamaica. This knowledge can also be generalized to other destinations with similar historical background and tourism resources. The applied questions will guide the discussions and provide additional resources for assessment purposes. They will also help the students to critically assess the dynamics of tourism development.

The case synopsis is consistent with the learning outcomes, corresponding applied questions and course recommendations. A total of two to three-hours teaching session can be used to discuss the constructs, analyze the case in point and answer the applied questions.

Hospitality and tourism management; strategic management; marketing, transportation system management and human resource management.

Undergraduate in business and management and hospitality and tourism management.

This teaching case outlines the historical background, successes and challenges of the national airline of Jamaica. It shows how a national airline, which is a heritage asset and one that has provided nostalgic and sentimental value to the Jamaican people and its passengers, had to be divested. The airline has been faced with several challenges; the major one being high-operating costs, especially in light of the global economic recession. The case also highlights the various procedures carried out by the Government of Jamaica before and after the divestment arrangement and also by the acquirer, Caribbean Airlines.

The student should be able to: first, differentiate among the various strategic management terms and concepts used in the case; second, explain the importance of strategic decisions versus emotional decisions; third, assess the environmental factors that impacted Air Jamaica's operation; fourth, analyse the environmental factors that should have been considered by Caribbean Airlines before making the decision to acquire Air Jamaica; fifth, carry out a comparative analysis of the various corporate-level strategies to identify the best option for the Government of Jamaica; sixth, propose reasons why Caribbean Airlines acquired Air Jamaica.

Teaching note.

Food service management, human resource management, hospitality strategic management and, international business and management.

Graduate students.

The purpose of this case study is to determine whether the practice of talent management serves to motivate fast food service employees. It aims to determine employees’ perceived level of awareness and importance of talent management practices; current practice of talent management within the fast food service sector; and to assess the level of motivation of employees from talent management practices. The survey method employing the use of questionnaires was used to ascertain data from a fast food service establishment in Jamaica, a developing island destination located in the Caribbean region (Sinclair-Maragh and Gursoy, 2015). Jamaica is chosen for the study, as there has been an increase in the number of both local and international fast food entities over the years (Collinder, 2014). The focus on fast food service is important, as they have been providing employment to a significant sector of the population. This type of business operation is classified as a tourism related hospitality area (Purcell, 1996) and as indicated by Christensen and Rog (2008), talent management presents an intriguing opportunity for hospitality organizations to attract employees with requisite skills and experience. The industry is also challenged in maintaining motivated employees (Baum, 2008). Talent management can assist organizations that have long-struggled with high turnover rates and the ability to attract and engage employees that are considered assets and not liabilities. Lockwood (2007) points out that engaged employees are loyal, hardworking and passionate about their work. Motivation theory is used to provide theoretical support for the findings of the study. This is because behavioral theorists such as Abraham Maslow suggested that survival, safety, belonging and self-esteem are factors that can be used to motivate employees and Sigmund Freud believes that people need to be rewarded to get work done (Nohria et al., 2008). This theory is plausible to the study, as it is postulated that talent management can enhance employee engagement, through highly motivated employees (Christensen and Rog, 2008). The study finds that majority of the employees understood the meaning of the term “talent management”. In terms of their personal and professional development, the employees believe that these are highly influenced by the organization’s culture. They pointed out that skills are usually developed through training, cross-training and succession planning. Financial assistance is given for further training and skill development. The performance evaluation process is used to identify employees’ specific skill. Although this is done, the majority has not been placed in other departments that would benefit more from their skills. Only 7.6 per cent reported that this was ever done. Employees’ emotional wellbeing is also important. Although majority of the employees (44.7 per cent) are happy about their work, they indicated that they could be motivated by coaching, mentorship and empowerment initiatives. Overall, the employees’ sense of belonging through their engagement and development, and self-esteem through their morale and competence are important to their motivation levels. They are also motivated when support is provided for training and skill development as explained by the motivation theory.

The learning outcomes are intended to guide the teaching-learning process and stimulate students’ understanding of the concepts of talent management specific to fast food service employees’ motivation. The case study is a useful resource for graduate students to enable and develop their critical thinking and solution-oriented skills. Students should be able to critically analyze the case and respond to the questions to garner and improve their understanding of talent management and its applicability in the fast food service sector. Further understanding of the concept can be derived from developing dimensions and measures of talent management that can be generalized to the food service sector.

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CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

This case study deals specifically with the issue of manufacturing strategy, and business strategy.

The case can be used in a number of course contexts, including undergraduate and MBA programs. The focus is on both business strategy and manufacturing strategy issues. The case can be assigned as an opening vignette, during the initial phases of business strategy, since the case situations and concepts are both simple and clear. It can also be assigned for an in-depth treatment of manufacturing strategy.

The case focuses on Capital Mills Limited (CML), a flour milling company, and concentrates on whether the company should refurbish its two 40-year old flour mills at a cost of US$6 million or if the company should invest US$15 million in the construction and installation of a new, fully-automated “Lights out” flour mill. This decision is viewed as a “make or break” decision for CML, since for the first time in the company's 40 year history will it face significant direct competition, in the form of the impending entry of a second flour milling company.

The case has four primary learning objectives, namely to: illustrate the linkages between business level strategy and the functional level, manufacturing strategy; discuss the role of a company's history and internal resource structure in the decision making process; explore how operational issues influence capital expenditure decisions; and explore the perspective of managers in different functions in an organization that is facing a new competitive challenge.

Teaching notes are available – consult your librarian for access.

This case is focused on the allegations of corrupt practices within the strategic leadership at the board level of an international sports organization – the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The theoretical premise is that the practices and decisions of the AFC’s leadership will have a profound impact on the AFC’s performance. However, because the AFC is the continental governing body, the impact is theorized to be far larger, across an entire industry. In writing the case, the authors were guided by upper Echelons theory (UET) (Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Hambrick, 2007; Hambrick et al., 2015), which argues that an organization’s strategic direction is directly influenced by its leader’s values. The authors selected UET for the theoretical framework, as it considered a spectrum of factors from industry, leader characters (values), their choices and the results of their actions. Such a comprehensive theory aligned with the complexities of the AFC and its leadership. In constructing the case roadmap using UET, the authors first adopted an ethnographic methodology. This was motivated by the fact that one of the authors had been embedded for many years as part of the leadership team at the AFC. His career work notes based on direct interactions and observations of these leaders helped in two ways: to identify the complex set of personal characteristics of these leaders (i.e. background, their careers outside football and financial standing) as they originated from 47 different nationalities. UET refers to these as observable factors to better theorize the hidden intentions of their alleged corrupt behaviors. UET identifies this second set of non-observable factors as psychological factors. These two different sets of observations combined helped to theorize their drivers, intentions and strategic decisions (options). For the second methodology, the authors accessed archival, publicly available media news and reports to understand the consequences of their actions to the AFC and the Asian football industry. This completed the final parts of the UET framework (Yamak et al., 2014).

This case relied on information that was widely reported within international media, press announcements by various organizations, published decisions by tribunals and publicly available information on the AFC. All of the names and positions in this case are actual persons.

This case focuses on the role and influence of the AFC as the Asian football governing body. The AFC is a member of the world football governing body – FIFA. With a US$1bn budget, the AFC has a strong impact on the future of football among Asia’s three billion people. Unfortunately, the AFC has been unable to create the value in its sports events or properties that attracts fans and investors. Central to this problem is the issue of corruption and corruption allegations within the AFC, especially with regard to its leadership. This case, therefore, attempts to highlight the various issues, discusses the circumstances around these challenges and brings forth the complexities of leading a truly international organization across 47 countries. Such factors are then tied to the value of the organization’s products or services in the marketplace.

The case is written and designed for a graduate level (MBA) class or an upper level undergraduate class such as corporate strategy, leadership, international management, international marketing, contemporary issues in management, cross-cultural management, sports management and sports marketing. In general, the case will also be a good fit for courses that discuss leadership, organizational strategy, organizational structure, organizational ethics and organizational behavior.

To understand the challenges of building a successful business in an emerging market like Yola, Nigeria. To understand the role of micro-finance banks in doing business in Yola, Nigeria. To comprehend strategies adopted in market segmentation and sales of products or services to the customer. To apprehend strategies adopted to sustain and compete in Nigeria – both rural and urban.

Standard Microfinance Bank Limited (SMFB) was a private micro-finance bank situated at Yola, Adamawa State of Nigeria. It initially started as a community bank in 1992 to provide loans to individuals and small business owners in Adamawa. It started with the services of payment service and savings account with a limited lending capacity. It had become a full-fledged retail bank and was grown to 13 branches across Nigeria. It planned for expansion such as market development, product development and diversification by the year 2020. It had a customer base of 60,000 till the end of December 2018. Vazheparambil Mani Francis was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SMFB. The SMFB faced challenges such as operating the remote villages, lack of financial literacy among people, recovery of the loan amount, submission of false credentials and change of customer identity after loan by their customer. It was not going to be an easy task for him to operate the business of SMFB in Nigeria. However, in December 2018, Francis was facing a dilemma about the future success of SMFB business in Nigeria by looking into the challenges and complexities of business. Francis was determined to figure out the appropriate growth strategy for managing the challenges.

Undergraduate and graduate early-stage program.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The case has the following learning objectives: to understand the dilemmas that an emerging market MNC faces during pre-and post-acquisition scenarios; understand and appreciate the basic tensions that arise when two different companies with different cultural setups are integrated; understand the importance of creating a culture integration road map to leverage the synergies of two successful companies; and understand the role of leadership in leading and managing change.

Asian Paints Ltd. has been a market leader in the Indian paint market for over five decades (since 1967). Over the years, starting in 1978, the company has steadily spread its footprint in the international arena as well. As of 2017, Asian Paints was a leader in 10 overseas markets, one of the top 3 paint companies in the Middle East, the largest paint manufacturing company in South Asia, and served 60 markets across the world. The international business contributed to around 12% of the company’s group turnover. In line with its long-term vision and to consolidate its presence in emerging markets, the company acquired Causeway Paints, a leading paint company in Sri Lanka, in April 2017. Asian Paints had a presence in Sri Lanka since 1999. Mr. Jatin Upadhyay, International Business Unit Head for Asian Paints, had played significant roles in the past in such acquisitions and was well aware of the impending challenges that came with such acquisitions. How would the integration of the two distinct entities be made possible without losing the overarching objective? How would the transition be managed? How would the cultural transition take place? What and how would the role be handled by the General Manager (GM) of Causeway Lanka? How would the new organisational structure support the transition? The case illustrates the complex management challenges that arise when a leading enterprise from a different country (Asian Paints) acquires a leading company in a different country, in this case, Causeway Paints, Sri Lanka.

The target audience for this case study is the students pursuing a post-graduate programme in management or an executive post-graduate programme in management. The case can also be used for management development programmes for experienced participants who are interested in understanding the possible scenarios that may arise after an acquisition when managing an international subsidiary in a different cultural setting.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

This case focuses on ethics issues arising from the tobacco trade. Government as regulator of that trade and guardian of public health faced complex political, financial and ethical issues in discharge of its responsibilities. The harms resulting from tobacco use were well-known and had generally attracted adverse decisions from governments everywhere. The company offering tobacco products for sale, Carreras Ltd., had generally continued to do well financially despite those adverse decisions. Government, in the present case, had introduced legislation to penalize tobacco use in public places, and in so doing, raised several ethical issues such as punishing smokers for using a legal, widely distributed product; classifying cigarettes as harmful to health yet allowing its wide distribution and sale; continuing to derive substantial tax revenue from sale of a harmful product; enabling Carreras to profit from sale of said harmful product; offering little help to smokers to break their nicotine addiction. Students should be asked to identify and recommend solutions to the ethical issues faced by: the government and its “point man”, the Minister of Health as they sought to reduce the public’s use of a harmful product. The smoker who may be even addicted to a product is known to cause or contribute to a host of serious diseases. Students were to identify and recommend solutions to ethical issues faced by the players in the case. One of these players was Carreras whose operations were facing severe regulatory and public relations headwinds. Another was the nonsmoking public whose health was put at risk even though they did not use the product. The sentences could be reworded to read; Carreras, in its continued efforts to justify selling a harmful product. Nonsmokers who, despite not using the product, suffered adverse health consequences because of its use by others.

Cigarette smoking has been linked to a long list of serious diseases including several cancers, cardio-vascular disease, pulmonary ailments and stroke. Despite several government actions over the years to reduce cigarette smoking, it remained widespread and continued to take a heavy toll on public health. The government’s latest gambit, the Public Health (Tobacco Control) Regulations introduced in 2013, represented the first legislation specifically designed to restrain smoking in “public places”. Carreras Ltd., a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), had been the only significant provider of cigarettes in Jamaica for several decades and in the period allocated for public feedback, mounted a fierce assault on the Regulations, and galvanized other private sector interests to join in that effort. The case addresses the interaction between government’s roles as guardian and financier of public health, the public’s right of choice, and a company’s right to sell a legal product, albeit one deemed harmful to public health. That government derived substantial tax receipts from trade in that product added another layer of complexity to the matter. The Minister of Health, Dr Fenton Ferguson, was the government’s point man and our protagonist.

Final year University students of Management would have been exposed to ethics theories. Many management courses do not devote enough effort to the study of the interplay between the ethical, financial, and legal and the issues that can arise therefrom to complicate decision-making. The case was structured to invite exploration of this interplay.

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CSS 11: Strategy