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This case traces through a 20-year history of a Chinese high-tech company, Maipu Communications Technology Company. Throughout the company’s growth, Maipu adjusted its innovation models in order to ensure that they remained compatible with corporate strategies, resources and external environments. However, as the company grew bigger, it was finding it more and more difficult to meet its innovation goals. Its current innovation model is a market-driven platform + distributed innovation. While Maipu has achieved some success under this model, it is faced with a myriad of challenges during the execution of the model. The key questions raised by this case are whether Maipu’s current innovation model is suitable for the company at this stage and how the innovation model should be adjusted to propel new innovation and growth opportunities for Maipu in this increasingly competitive market.

This case was a field research case. The authors paid three visits to Maipu Communications Technology Company, during which the authors conducted in-depth interviews with Mr Zhao, the Head of Maipu’s R&D and Innovation group, and several senior and functional managers of the company. Follow-up communication via telephone and e-mail was conducted to verify the accuracy of the written case.

This case is well suited for courses in the areas of strategic management, innovation management, high-tech management, entrepreneurship, and international business. The target audiences of the case are primarily MBA students, although this case can also be used in upper-level undergraduate business courses.

The theoretical basis for this case includes the following management theories: strategy formulation and strategy implementation, business-level and corporate-level strategies, enterprise life-cycle, corporate strategies at various stages of growth, patterns of innovation and applications, and implementation of innovation strategies.

In December 2007, Sergey Nikolaev, founder and CEO of the Untsiya company, a tea shop chain in St. Petersburg, Russia, was facing a major decision about the future of his company: should he diversify the business or focus solely on tea sales via exclusive shops? Founded in 2002, the Untsiya Company had enjoyed dramatic growth and great success in the St. Petersburg market. By 2007, having directed the successful roll-out of his tea shop chain, Nikolaev wanted to grow to the next level and was prepared to revise his corporate strategy, even to the extent of changing his existing, stable organizational structure. Students are challenged to select a growth strategy and related organizational changes to implement that strategy.

1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how changes in the external environment could hasten such a decision.

2. Analyze how a company can leverage its internal organizational structure to share and utilize cross-departmental resources and capabilities to support new venture businesses according to the synergy effect perspective.

3. Undertake a resource-based view analysis to evaluate the external and internal resources needed for corporate new venture development.

4. Identify the best course of action for the decision-maker by comparing, contrasting, applying and evaluating the two different models of corporate new venture development in the e-commerce business: the centralized organizational model and the decentralized organizational model and evaluate the pros and cons associated with each mode in the context of Dahan’s external and internal environments.

Since its inception in 2003, Dahan’s traditional business in SMS (Short Message Services) and data had gained thousands of customers across China and won top rankings in the industry. Despite its achievements, Dahan encountered difficulties when it entered the new e-commerce market, as the domain knowledge about the new business was very different from the domain knowledge in its traditional business. Furthermore, the emerging B2B e-commerce industry was very different from the traditional business in that the former mainly targeted corporate clients and the latter targeted individual customers in the B2C industry. This case examined the critical decisions that Xiaofen Huang, the CEO of Dahan E-Commerce Corporation and Co-Founder of Dahan Tricom Group, had to make and external, especially Internal, resources the Dahan Group needed in developing its new venture.

Specifically, this case explored how Huang would go through the mental process to make the best possible decision to help the company not only to survive, but also thrive in the rapidly-changing and competitive digital environment: it urgently needed to finalize an organizational incubation model to support the further development of its e-commerce and future new venture activities with two options to choose from: the centralized organizational model or the decentralized organizational model. A key challenge facing Huang was to decide which option was best suited to motivate salespeople in different departments to help one another, especially in the new B2B e-commerce business and to grow that new business.

In the case, Dahan’s growth aspirations and its motivation to transform its traditional business into a new e-commerce business were discussed. Second, when external challenges were examined, how Dahan explored the B2B e-commerce business using a trial-and-error learning process was explained. Third, when internal challenges were examined, how Dahan incubated its new B2B e-commerce business and its practices for leveraging and sharing resources/capabilities, as well as cross-departmental and cross-divisional collaboration through a resource-based lens, were illustrated. Last, the most critical learning in the case presented an immediate decision-making dilemma on which organizational incubation models to choose from for further new business development, where students learn to analyze both external and internal factors and consider Dahan’s available resource and founder’s aspiration, available strategic options to derive a best possible decision to suit the stage of the company’s lifecycle and founders’ vision.

This case was designed for use in undergraduate courses on corporate innovation, new venture development, corporate innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, e-commerce and growth.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case is an abridged version of UVA-F-1115. This version is intended for use with audiences requiring less source documentation than is available in the unabridged version. The teaching note, however, contains all the source documentation in an appendix.

Social entrepreneurship, Social enterprise.

Masters Programme in Social Entrepreneurship, Social Work, Business Administration; Management Development Programme for Social Entreprenuers.

Organisation for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility (OSCAR) Foundation is a non-profit organisation registered in 2010 under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950. Born and raised in the slum colony of Ambedkar Nagar, Cuffe Parade, Ashok, the founder, grew up seeing his friends becoming a victim to many socially inappropriate behaviours due to dropping out of school. Inspired by the thought of breaking this vicious cycle, Ashok used football as a mechanism to instil essential life skills among children and youth and encouraged them to continue their education. The success of his pilot motivated him to set up OSCAR. Presently, through its various programmes, the organisation has reached out to more than 3,000 marginalised children and 500 youths and aims to reach out to 20,000 children by 2020. The case highlights the struggles of Ashok’s entrepreneurial journey and maps the new challenges in scaling up his enterprise.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to identify the characteristics of a social entrepreneur and ascertain the leadership skills required by a social entrepreneur; to scrutinise the life cycle of a social enterprise and develop insights to examine the unique risks and challenges faced at the start-up phase of the social enterprise; and to enhance the understanding of interrelationship between passion, mission focus and challenges to attain financial sustainability for a social venture.

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.

This case uniquely challenges students by introducing the history of how LIXIL transformed its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program to create shared value within the global sanitation sector by launching the SATO business unit as a social enterprise. SATO is a “self-sustaining social business that establishes a local Make, Sell, Use cycle in the community – creating jobs and allowing local manufacturers and stakeholders to continue the business independently” (LIXIL, 2019). From 2012 to 2021, NGOs helped the company design and market the SATO toilet pan and other products that form the SATO business unit. The SATO business unit must balance its social mission of improved sanitation with the need to gain a profit and become a sustainable business – the ongoing challenge of social entrepreneurship.

After completing this case study, students will be able to meet the following objectives: understand the difference in corporate strategy between CSR and ventures that create shared value; understand the sometimes-competing goals of social enterprises and analyze how they can balance both economic and social objectives; understand that developing and emerging markets are different from each other; explain how corporations can decide which markets to pursue, and how they can meet the needs of the diverse BOP markets; understand how the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals can create economic opportunities for corporations; and (optional: suggested for post-graduates) identify activities and challenges of MNC market entry in developing country contexts. Analyze institutional voids in developing country contexts and explore how partnerships can help to address these voids.

This case is most appropriate for the study of international business, corporate social responsibility, and social entrepreneurship students at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The case may be used for undergraduate students to illustrate corporate social entrepreneurship, creating shared value, NGO partnerships, and marketing to the base of the pyramid (BOP) consumers. An optional section on BOP market entry is presented for early- and late-stage post-graduate students, illustrating the concepts of the liability of foreignness and institutional voids.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes of this study include: recognizing the strategic inflexion points and related business and strategic perspectives in the life of an organization; understanding sources of sustained competitive advantage and connect it with resource-based view for internal analysis; applying dynamic capability theory to identify capabilities that help an IT company stay relevant in an IT sector characterized by VUCA (an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) environment; analyzing the multi-dimensional and multi-contextual challenge an organization faces, or is likely to face, in the foreseeable future and the possible ways it addresses or should address them; evaluating strategies adopted at various points of an organization’s journey for their effectiveness; and helping a company co-create value for its customers.

This case of Nitor Infotech Private Limited (Nitor), a mid-sized software product outsourcing company, outlines its decade-long journey, highlighting its achievements. While the company has consistently grown by leveraging its expertise in software product engineering and its domain knowledge in the healthcare segment, it entered into a stage of its life cycle where it had to develop a long-term strategy to effectively compete in the product engineering market. Nitor’s strategy was built around product engineering and outsourced product development. The two major choices for a software company were either to develop its own product and thereby own the intellectual property (IP) or to develop modules which would be part of a product that would be owned by a client. In the latter case, the IP would be held by the client. So far Nitor chose to follow the second option by developing components for its client’s products. Although this strategy allowed it to develop expertise in a particular domain, and serve different customers in a particular market, the chances of a competitor attacking its position was high. On the other hand, if it developed its own product, it can create its own brand name and can sell packaged software to several different customers. However, the challenge with the latter is that the cost of marketing could be very high. The choice for the company in the future is to decide on selecting a specific strategy to expand its international business.

This case is appropriate for an undergraduate and postgraduate management course in the area of strategic management. The level of difficulty can be from medium to high depending on the learning level. Knowledge of management fundamentals is not a prerequisite but is desirable for case analysis.

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 11: Strategy

Arjun Sekri, a professional-turned-entrepreneur, set out to establish the first branded gourmet industrial bakery in Bengaluru, India in late 2002. His lack of experience in the unorganized food and beverages industry did not deter him from establishing a highly popular industrial and retail bakery chain called “Daily Bread”. The case is about his roller coaster ride in establishing a premium retail food brand in India. Though many of the stores did reasonably well, many things went wrong predominantly on the operations front due to the severe impact of global price inflation, manifested by high real estate rentals, raw material, packing and logistics costs and wage costs. After two years of rapid expansion, in order to curb the bleeding bottom line, Arjun decided to shut down all the newly created stores and production units except the one in Bengaluru which was doing well. By late 2009, the dilemma Arjun faced was what should he do next?

The case study is based on primary data collected from the protagonist and a few other stakeholders involved in the case along with secondary data from published sources.

Entrepreneurship courses at MBA level or executive programs.

The case deals with the life cycle management of a venture with special emphasis on opportunity evaluation, setting up, funding and stakeholders selection.

Upon completion of the case study, students are expected to identify the characteristics that differentiate a family business from other businesses, understand the life cycles of family businesses and evaluate the significance of succession planning and leadership development in a family business.

In May 2023, when the sultry afternoon had settled down, Bijan Dam, a first-generation entrepreneur and a septuagenarian, was in a pensive mood. Introspecting life events, he ruminated that if he could rewind the tape of life, go back in space and time, would things be different. “I wish life gave me a second chance,” he lamented! Perhaps he could have planned better. Since founding the printing business in 1985, Ruby Art Press had scaled up significantly from letter press to full-fledged computer printing technology unit. The press had made inroads in job orders, government contracts and screen printing. Its client base was large. It also attracted repeat clients from adjoining states. With a successful business history of three and half decades, he had assumed the business would thrive perpetually. Today the business he had built, sustained and raised was practically gone. Why had he not anticipated the future potential of the business? Why had he not dwelled upon the successful business progression? Regardless of impeccable client service and personalized vendor management, what were the missing cues in the business? Deep agony and heavy burden of remorse were mentally excruciating. This had pestering effect on his health condition. Given these challenges, how could Dam ensure business continuity?

This case can be used in entrepreneurship, family business management and human management courses. The dilemma can be explained as part of the courses for undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Corporate social responsibility, sustainability and business ethics.

This case has been designed for undergraduate students, with two target audiences. The first is business and management students following modules in corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and business ethics. Here the accent is on allowing the students to explore and debate how CSR agendas are emerging within a specific sector of the retail economy. The second is students pursuing fashion, clothing, textile, retailing and consumer studies degrees and here the focus is on how some of the leading fashion goods retailers are addressing CSR. More generally the case can also be used on “Contemporary Issues” modules within general business and management programmes.

This small case offers an exploratory review of the emerging CSR issues currently being publicly addressed by the world's leading fashion goods retailers. It includes a brief introduction to CSR; a brief thumbnail sketch of the fashion goods industry; details of the method of enquiry; a description of the CSR issues currently being publicly addressed by the top ten fashion good retailers on their corporate web sites; and some critical reflections on the CSR agendas being pursued by these retailers. The case study is novel in two ways. First, it focuses upon what is an emerging market issue rather than on emerging markets per se though a number of the issues raised in the case have major implications for emerging economies. Second, it addresses the CSR issues being addressed by a number of the leading fashion goods retailers and as such it a not a case which relates to individual decision making. While the case is principally focussed upon the retail sector it ranges across the whole of the supply chain.

The paper provides an accessible review of the CSR issues and agendas currently being pursued by the leading fashion goods retailers and as such it will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners who are interested in both the fashion industry and corporate sustainability.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access.