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Firm success, organizational structure and values, business challenges, corporate change, decision making.

Senior undergraduate courses in Organizational Behavior and Business Policy and Strategy.

This case relates the story of growth of Future Internet, a small media firm launched in 1998 in Dubai, UAE. The case describes the past achievements of Future Internet along with the challenges met on the road, illustrates the key factors and core organizational values that were critical for its business success and discusses the new prospects that the company is seeking to explore in the future. As Future Internet is continuously searching to engage in a path of new business opportunities, what are the most viable strategic choices to be made for securing a sustainable corporate growth and development?

Discuss different aspects involved in the management of a small firm operating in a dynamic industry; assess the key factors that might contribute to explaining corporate success; and evaluate the effectiveness of managerial decision making over time (change in structure and values, opportunities' evaluation and selection of strategic options) to achieve sustainable development.

Teaching notes.

“Starting up a new company” and “development of technology-based venture”.

The target audiences for this study are advanced business or non-business undergraduate students and MBA students taking courses of entrepreneurship, management of innovation and organization theory and design.

Yeayyy.com was a private limited company based in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, a township located about 30 km south of Kuala Lumpur. It was founded by Mr Hazmin in early 2010 with a seed funding of RM150,000 (about US$50,000). By the end of 2014, its core businesses include developing mobile application (app), software and website, as well as conducting information technology (IT) training. The company had developed its own animation cartoon, Oolat Oolit, and had commercialized several mobile app inventions. These mobile apps include a Jawi (traditional Malay writing system) app, mobile games and Facebook apps which were compatible with most mobile operating systems. Since its inception, Yeayyy.com had aspired to follow the footsteps of the internationally acclaimed Malaysian home-grown animation production house, Les’ Copaque, which had produced the popular Upin Ipin series. Similar to Les’ Copaque, Yeayyy.com also planned to commercialize its in-house characters into TV series and to market related merchandises, along with its collaborative partner, CikuTree Studio. However, by the end of 2014, the company’s seed funding had depleted, thus forcing Mr Hazmin to strategize for the company’s future.

Understanding the process of entrepreneurship and technology-based venture development enables case analysts to apply the concepts in many situations involving business opportunities and company development.

CSS:3 Entrepreneurship.

Enterprise, Strategy.

This case study is about a used car retailer in an African country, specifically Ghana. Lessons drawn from the case could be applied in societies which are highly socialised; not individualistic.

Ghana is one of the first African countries to be hooked up to the internet. However, there has been a very slow uptake of “traditional” e-commerce applications due to a number of critical factors including a legal framework, and electronic payment system. Despite these challenges, some firms are making strides to use the power of the internet to enhance their operations. For example, the case firm uses social relationships to sell its first stock of cars and to re-design its website. Other findings and lessons from this case could be applied to similar contexts.

An understanding of how society influences business operations, especially in an African or Ghanaian context. Learners can also draw lessons that could be applicable to enhancing and growing the e-commerce capabilities of offline firms.

Teaching notes.

Students will need to know basic capital budgeting techniques to value UrsaNav and its divisions. Students must determine which cash flows are relevant and determine an appropriate return on investment. Some of the issues that need to be addressed include: how to handle taxes in a discounted cash flow analysis when valuing an S Corp. where incentives depend on current (known) tax provisions and future (unknown) tax provisions; how to use comparable multiples to develop a cost of capital for a DCF valuation; and how to value a firm using comparable transactions.

Case information was obtained through interviews with the owner, Charles Schue. In addition, the authors researched industry and comparable company data, along with current events relating to government consulting.

UrsaNav is a US-based, international provider of advanced engineering and information management consulting services in the naval navigation industry. After about a decade of operating and growing, the firm had become successfully diversified; however, it had also grown too large to manage effectively. Thus, the company was spun-off into three separate segments: Tagence, Geodesicx and UrsaNav. These segments went “back to the basics,” and focused more on serving customers, with each having a more defined company focus. Is this a move that creates or destroys value? How could it create value for the firms’ founders?

This case is intended for an advanced undergraduate or an MBA corporate finance class or an entrepreneurship elective. Students interested in analyzing whether or not decision makers within a company would want to spin-off divisions, or merge with another company, or divest a company would find this case appealing. Other students who just want to analyze whether the company has grown too much would be good candidates to do this case.

National Innovation Foundation (NIF) was a partner organization of the Honey Bee Network (HBN) which was a networked organization of individuals, innovators, farmers, scholars, academicians, policy makers, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The HBN worked to create a network of grassroot innovators and acknowledged them by protecting their IPR. NIF was an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, which provided institutional support to grassroot innovators, and facilitated the diffusion of traditional knowledge through various channels. NIF also handled filing patents and licensing of grassroot technology.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic management, Management information systems.

Undergraduate and graduate capstone course in entrepreneurship, strategic management or management information systems courses.

This case study of a young technology firm, Codezin Technology Solutions, helps to analyze the challenges faced by such firms in emerging markets. Such markets are characterized by rapid turbulence in the market characteristics. The authors seek to analyze the role of disruptive regulatory changes, resulting in the growth of new startups, in affecting the growth and expansion of such young firms. Codezin was established in 2009 as a bootstrap company, to provide low-cost IT services to Indian small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). Despite some initial success, it began to run into losses due to poor coordination and improper planning. After a period of struggle, the company stabilized its revenue from services business and expanded to mobile solutions, digital marketing, etc. But then the government of India announced the Startup India initiative at the beginning of 2016 to boost new ventures. Codezin did not qualify as per the government rules and thus failed to use the various incentives offered. Hence, it needs to determine a new strategy to compete with the onslaught of freshly funded startups but with a relative lack of market experience.

With the case discussion, the students will gain rich insights on technology businesses aimed at SMEs and the impact of changes in the regulatory regime in emerging markets like India. Further, they get to step into the shoes of the co-founders and choose between diversification vs new market development strategies, spurred by market disturbances and thinning competitive advantage.

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.

After a successful run for many years as a resilient consumer electronics giant, Best Buy was under intense pressure at the end of 2014. Even as competitors like Circuit City melted away, Best Buy had been able to withstand the onslaught of online behemoth Amazon and discount retailers like Target and Walmart. However, its competitive position was threatened as online shopping became more popular, particularly among millennial customers.

With a new leadership team, Best Buy had recently undertaken bold initiatives to expand and refine its online presence and position itself for success. These initiatives had produced encouraging results, but Best Buy needed to do more to stem the loss of market share to Amazon and to become more relevant to millennial customers. To address these challenges, Best Buy approached the Kellogg School of Management to solicit ideas from student teams by sponsoring a Business Challenge competition. The teams came up with several strategic initiatives. Best Buy needed to evaluate these initiatives on two criteria: First, how well did these initiatives leverage Best Buy's privileged physical assets (stores, salespeople, and Geek Squad services staff) to create a winning customer experience? Second, how effective would these initiatives be in attracting and retaining millennial customers?

Upon completion of this case study, students will be able to analyze the interplay between small business growth and innovation in sustainable entrepreneurial success; evaluate factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations within startups; and decide on the optimal technological innovation for achieving sustainable growth in a startup.

This case study is about Liliana, a young Colombian entrepreneur. She had to decide how to innovate in her process of providing regulatory compliance and due diligence consulting services. According to Law 1778 of 2016, compliance and due diligence services became mandatory for companies with international operations in Colombia. Lemaître, Liliana’s venture, provided this service in an artisanal way. However, her market required the incorporation of technologies. Liliana must choose what to automate in her process and what to keep traditional. Not innovating meant Lemaître would be unable to grow, causing the sustainability of the business would to be at risk.

This case study is suitable for use for master of business administration students and in executive education short courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Marketing/Consumer behaviour.

The case can be used for the postgraduate students and executives in a first-year Marketing Management class for an introductory session on understanding consumer decision in a business-to-consumer context. The case can be also used in a second-year elective course on Consumer Behaviour for the topic on consumer decision-making journey and managing customer experience through service excellence. This case would be most befitting to be used for the first introductory session of 75 minutes to give an overview on consumer behaviour.

The dismal failure of Natasha’s desktop while preparing an important presentation due for submission compels Natasha (the protagonist) to make up her mind to buy a laptop. After consulting her friends and relatives, followed with intense search from different retail stores, Natasha finally decides to buy a Sony laptop from a multi-brand retail outlet with a price discount and freebies. Finally, when Natasha settled down to work on her new laptop on her pending presentation, she confronts some problem. Unable to identify the problem, she contacted the store sales representative to resolve the problem. However, the representative’s ineffectiveness in addressing the problem and promptly delivering the service leaves Natasha in a state of uncertainty and confusion. She seemed to be in a fix and undecided, wondering whether she should immediately rush to the repair centre with her desktop to fix the problem for the time being or she should leave the laptop and wait till the problem gets resolved.

The case aims to provide interesting inputs on various phases of consumer decision-making journey and appropriate marketing strategy for each phase. The objective is to make students appreciate how poor after-sales service results in post-purchase dissonance and conflict in the consumer's mind. The case provides an opportunity for students to come up with possible solutions to resolve the post-purchase dissonance and conflict and share their views or ideas of how a seller can create a lasting impression in the mind of the buyer.

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 value of the DeLone & McLean model for planning actions before IS design and implementation can guarantee its success.The value of the DeLone & McLean model for IS auditing in critical dimensions of project success, including both hard and soft elements.Information and information systems are essential organizational resources that must be viewed in an interconnected way with the rest of the organization's resources and capabilities that systemically guarantee the achievement of the export objectives.The role of management commitment in the success of voluntary Information Systems.

The case deals with Luis's decision to continue a Competitive Information System project. For his PhD research project, Luis designed and implemented an information system to support the export goals of the business school for which he worked. Three months later, the System obtained positive feedback and user satisfaction but deficient System usage levels. Luis does not know whether to continue with the project or not. If he decides to continue, further steps are needed to increase the System's use for contributing to the export goals.

The case is suitable for use with MBA students and executive education short courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 5: International Business.