Search results

You are the CEO of an e-cigarette company that has just been acquired by a major tobacco company. Your company operates in the European market. The July 2013 draft of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) recently has been crafted by the European Commission, but it has not yet been examined by the EU Parliament and its Council. The draft proposes that all e-cigarette products be classified as medical devices, regardless of nicotine content. This is the strictest available mode of regulation. If the directive goes into effect as written, e-cigarettes would have to undergo costly and lengthy clinical trials to receive approval and face much stricter marketability restrictions.

The case details the state of the e-cigarette industry in 2013, including consumer data, distribution, competition from similar products, and public health concerns. Students will analyze the current regulatory environment, determine what outcome would be most favorable to the e-cigarette industry, and identify the ways to achieve that goal.

Service innovation, ICT-enabled services, museum, cultural and creative industries.

Graduate-level courses of “Innovation Management,” “Service Innovation,” or “Cultural and Creative Industries”.

In 2006, the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei, Taiwan, announced its new vision “Reviving the Charm of an Ancient Collection and Creating New values for Generations to Come”. In recent years, the NPM has been shifting its operational focus from being object-oriented to being public-centered, and the museum has held not only the physical forms of artifacts and documents but also their digital images and metadata. These changes would inject new life into historical artifacts. In addition, archives as its collections would be given a refreshingly new image to the public and become connected with people's daily lives. Among these endeavors for displaying historical artifacts online and prevailing Chinese culture in the modern age, the key issues are related to digital technology applications and service innovations. The service innovations would be further divided into information and communication technologies (ICT)-enabled ones and non-ICT-enabled ones. These shifts clearly claim that adopting digital technologies and innovative services can bring positive impacts to the museum. The NPM administrative team wants to keep infusing life into ancient artifacts and texts, sustaining curiosities of the public for Chinese culture and history, and invoking their interests to visit the NPM in person. However, to develop for the future while reviewing the past, the NPM administrative team has to meditate on the next steps in terms of implementation of service innovations.

Students will learn motivations of digital establishment and service innovations from the organization perspective and the necessities of technological implementation. Students will understand the difference in innovations between ICT-enabled services and non-ICT-enabled services. Students would be able to understand the process of developing a new service. Students will be aware of challenges the organization would face in developing a new service.

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

Leadership.

The case is suitable for MBA, Executive level courses.

Yongye Group is a biotechnological enterprise in Inner Mongolia, China. In China, people lack trust in economic transactions due to the transitional state of the economy, especially regarding food safety. To respond to this situation, Wu Zishen, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Yongye Group, was determined to build trust among employees, distributors, farmers, and consumers towards the company. To this end, he started using a creative incentive system with employees and stakeholders: the pay-before-performance incentive system. According to this system, the reward is delivered in advance, contrary to be paid after the fulfillment of the task. This practice is meant to transform employees' work attitude from a passive “being told to work” to a more proactive “I want to work” mentality. When such an incentive system is practiced with customers and external distributors, it sends a message that the company is “treating customers as company employees”, which means that they are trusted as if they were part of the company itself. Wu Zishen also introduced a coherent series of leadership practices that generate a truly proactive culture in the organization.

From this case, students will learn how to create a proactive culture in business organizations and the effect of pay-before-performance on employees' work motivation.

Teaching notes and an exercise for class-based discussion are available.

The present case study would help readers to understand paternalistic leadership behavior with its underlying theory. Readers would be able to appreciate the nature of experiences employees may have while working with a paternalistic leader high on authoritarianism. This case study would motivate readers to work out appropriate strategies for working under paternalistic bosses. The teaching note sensitizes readers about the complicated relationship between paternalistic leadership and culture.

Pyramid Globe Management Institute (PGMI) is struggling to generate revenue. PGMI founder, Tugmanshu Lakhani, has to find out new sources of revenue to keep the institute functioning. He constitutes a team of three professors for starting a new academic program with a foreign university. The initial success of the team brings favor from the founder but jealousy from the colleagues reeling under job threat. High authoritarianism and interference of the founder create a problematic situation for the three professors. When the new program starts showing promising results, the founder gets apprehensive about whether the new course may hurt the enrolment in the flagship program of the institute. The authoritarian and erratic behavior of the founder had a demotivating effect on the team working for the new program. Some team members resign under pressure while three professors stay to ensure the launch of the program. The professors have to resolve the conflict between their commitment toward PGMI in a troubled time and a career uncertainty if they continue working for it. Anticipating no change in the behavior of the founder and an uncertain future with PGMI, three professors quit after the start of the new program. The founder may continue losing committed employees if he is unable to balance his authoritarianism with benevolence and moral behavior. It will create more problems for PGMI in the future.

This case can be used in organizational behavior, leadership and team-building courses in the regular Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. The case can further be used in the executive development program, especially for analyzing the leadership problem in higher education organizations.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science.

This case is designed for an undergraduate entrepreneurship course dealing with the launch and growth of an entrepreneurial venture, including strategies for effective team building, especially with teams based in different countries.

This case has been used in 300 and 400 level entrepreneurship courses.

The case tells the story of John Lee (CEO) and Regina Adams (President), the founders of a new business called global loans in entrepreneurship (GLIE) based in Singapore. GLIE facilitates micro-loans for small business owners in the developing world and specifically targets entrepreneurial development projects for the poor. Many social enterprises start their operations on a shoestring budget. Typically, the deficit of cash pushes the leadership to use creative strategies to move things forward, including recruiting individuals who are willing to work in the startup phase without monetary compensation. This case sheds light on what can happen when founders recruit and rely on a volunteer for essential technology development, vesting the individual with substantial power, and creating the possibility for him/her to delay or purposefully hold up the launch of the company.

The case highlights the importance for someone on the founding team to have whatever core competencies are most critical to the firm. Additional themes are the importance of raising adequate funds at startup, the pitfalls of using volunteers in the wrong capacity, and the disastrous impact the wrong employee can have in a small firm setting.

Teaching note.

In writing this case, the research team used secondary resources such as academic journals, trade magazines and websites to inform and verify the information.

January 7, 2021, was not a good day for Goya Foods CEO Robert Bob Unanue, who has been at the helm of Goya since 2004. On that day, the nine-member board of directors of Goya censured Unanue for publicly questioning the legitimacy of the 2021 United States Presidential election. A day before, on January 6, a mob “trapped lawmakers and vandalized the home of Congress in the worst desecration of the complex since British forces burned it in 1814” (Hockstein, 2021).

Unanue was considered a follower of former president Trump and has expressed that “the country was […] blessed to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder” (Hawkins, 2020). In January 2021, Unanue appeared on Fox News and said a “ war was coming,” as Joe Biden’s election was “unverified.” These, among other words, motivated the censured by the board of Goya Foods, Inc. (Santana and Isidore, 2021).

Students are asked the following questions for discussion: Did the board of directors of Goya Foods carry its role too far by openly censuring Unanue? Did Unanue go too far by openly expressing subjective opinions and thus influencing how people view the election results? Should he have remained as CEO of Goya Foods after his words on Joe Biden’s election?

One of the authors has taught the case in the Strategic Management course for MBA students. In addition, graduate students of corporate governance, business ethics, social responsibility and leadership, among other classes, will be the target segments for the case.

1. Recognize the effects on brand image and sales when CEOs participate in political arenas and publicly discuss social issues.

2. Understand the dynamics behind ethnic family businesses, such as their governance and conflict resolution approach.

3. Assess the value of the corporate board’s management of corporations.

CCS11: Strategy

At the end of the session, learners are expected to be able to evaluate the detrimental impact of stress on blue-collar workers’ well-being in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; develop effective strategies to improve stressful conditions experienced by blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse and select appropriate approaches that can help maintain the motivation levels of blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse the impact of Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd’s extensive investment in training new blue-collar workers, alongside the subsequent high turnover rate, on the decline in sales and profit; identify the critical changes that the managing director should have implemented to prioritize employee retention among blue-collar workers at Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; discuss the strategic implementation of mechanization, specifically in the context of automating repetitive processes, as an innovative solution to address the challenges faced by the ship repair and maintenance service industry heavily reliant on blue-collar workers in emerging markets; cultivate thoughtful debates on ways to keep blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, as well as active learner participation and group interaction; develop learners’ analytical and critical thinking skills by guiding them through the analysis of a real-world case study in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, concentrating on the difficulties and potential solutions for blue-collar worker retention; and equip learners with practical knowledge and insights on implementing effective human resources strategies for retaining blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, emphasizing the conversion of theoretical concepts into workable solutions.

This teaching case study centres on Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian conglomerate that bestows ship repair and maintenance services. Regrettably, the corporation has been subjected to a decrease in profitability and productivity owing to its high turnover rate of blue-collar workers. The ship repair and maintenance service industry is accountable for delivering comprehensive repair and maintenance services to ships, including their engines, hulls, machinery and other related components. The fundamental aim of this case study is to ascertain the rudimentary factors that contribute to this issue and foster effective strategies to enhance the motivation and retention rate of blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service corporation, using appropriate management theories, models and concepts. The case study brings to light the importance of discovering the most suitable approaches to retain blue-collar workers in the corporation to improve its profitability and productivity in a highly competitive market. This teaching case study will be beneficial for students and practitioners who want to grasp the disputes associated with retaining blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service industry and learn how to apply management theories, models and concepts to address these disputes effectively.

This case discussion would be highly suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate university students who are pursuing their studies in management or related fields and are eager to delve into the nuances of the ship repair and maintenance service industry. Furthermore, trainers from both private and public agencies who are keen on gaining a deeper understanding of the issues pertaining to retaining blue-collar workers in this particular industry and devising result-oriented strategies to tackle these concerns would also find this case discussion immensely helpful.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand how technology can be used to create innovative entrepreneurial opportunities; to develop analytical and critical thinking skills to understand organisations, industries and their dynamics; to analyse strategic options for an entrepreneurial organisations and motivate a proposed strategic direction; and to assess the inter-functional requirements for an entrepreneurship to successfully implement a strategy.

UCOOK, a successful emerging economy SME, is confronted with the threat of retail giants (e.g. Checkers and Woolworths) entering the meal kit space. No longer the only “new kid on the block”, UCOOK has to consider a sustainable growth strategy to remain competitive. The case provides the reader with a snapshot of experiences of a meal kit entrepreneurial venture and what it entails for them to grow in the South African milieu. Principally, this case is designed to impart knowledge and stimulate a practical understanding of entrepreneurship and strategic decision-making in the meal kit industry. Additionally, the purpose is to serve as inspiration for business students to see the opportunities that lie within strategically astute emerging market ventures.

The primary target audience for this teaching case is postgraduate business students, especially students of entrepreneurship, strategy and e-commerce. This teaching case is intended to be used as case study in post graduate business programmes such as Master of Business Administration (MBA), a specialist Masters programme such as MM (Entrepreneurship), post-graduate diploma in management (PGDip), as well as selected executive education programmes.

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.