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The case is meant to be used in an introductory course on Data Visualization or Analytics in either a business school or any other context where students have had some exposure to management topics. This case primarily focuses on introducing students to the basic philosophy and techniques of exploratory data analysis (EDA). The Steaming Mug, a US based hot beverage chain is provided as a context for engaging in a hands-on exploratory data analysis exercise to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company's operations and performance. The learning from exploring this case will help students understand that many different insights can be drawn from the given data. The students will understand that there is no “one correct path” for this analysis. The values of getting multiple groups to present their findings is that students realise that there are many other angles that could have been explored, than the path they had gone down.

Several theories emerge in a reading of this case; however, the primary or overarching focus of the case is the role of communication and how ineffective or non-existent communication during training, coordination and follow-up of a critical incident can impact officers, departments and communities. Furthermore, this case provides valuable insights for civilian businesses on the importance of formal and informal communication.

The case was based upon extensive interviews with a police officer involved in a shooting. In addition to extensive semi-structured interviews, research for the case also included review of psychological evaluations of the officer involved, journalism pieces and blogs written about the shooting under study, and reports from the Attorney General’s investigation of this shooting.

Detective Keith Casey, an undercover Narcotics Officer for 12 years, had trained and served as a member and point person for the Emergency Response Team (i.e. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team) for seven years. On April 25, 2010, Casey was working on an electronic surveillance (i.e. a wiretap) out of the FBI office when he received the call about a barricaded suspect in Hammonton, New Jersey. The barricaded suspect had pulled a gun on an EMT in Deptford New Jersey and threatened to kill himself and others. At approximately, 4:10 a.m. because he was perceived to be a danger to himself and others, the SWAT team was sent into the home where the suspect was barricaded. After ignoring repeated commands to drop his weapon, the barricaded suspect was struck down by cases moments after the SWAT team entered the home. Preparation and training on intervention and team management has become increasingly more important for police departments around the world. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been placed on officer bias; however, little attention has been placed on officers who pull the trigger and the events that follow. This case offers a first-hand account of how communication, between all players, before, during and after an officer involved shooting impacts all phases of the critical incident.

This case is targeted to undergraduate and graduate students in organizational communication, but may include public relations, introduction to management, strategic management and organizational behavior, especially if the course includes a discussion of communication and crisis management.

The novelty of this case is the multidisciplinary focus where the aspects of entrepreneurship, marketing strategy and finance are mixed together. Students are expected to apply their knowledge of Business Model Canvas and Marketing 4.0, as well as learn about the new type of entrepreneurial finance such as crowdfunding. The setting of this case is novel too – the new quest games industry in Russia. Finally, the novelty of this case is its format where the protagonists’ interview is available as a podcast, and thus, the students will need to review only the tables and the appendices.

This decision case was field researched by the authors who interviewed the founders of this start-up and the business incubator (BI) director. No information was disguised in any way. Also, the secondary research on the main trends in the development of the international and Russian quest markets was completed by the authors in the preparation of this case.

Paranoiabox.ru case presents an entrepreneurial and strategic marketing decision situation. In May 2019, in Moscow, Russia, two young residents of the MGIMO University BI, Anastasia and Max, founded the start-up business called Paranoiabox.ru. This project was a quest in a new format with home delivery: a mixture of escape, detective and board game. The player received by post a box containing various objects. Interacting with them, he/she unraveled the plot thread, found clues and gradually approached the final clue. The game with complex copyright puzzles had a built-in hint system and provided mechanisms for interaction online. By July 2019, 30 boxes for their first quest were sold. The subscribers were waiting for a new quest. Despite the first sales, Anastasia and Max had no budget for hiring freelancers or outsourcing. They were faced with an urgent and challenging dilemma: whether to concentrate on the current product sales and spend all the budget on promotion or, alternatively, to launch a series of new quests and focus on the target market with high brand awareness. There was an additional funding dilemma: should they apply for crowdfunding?

This case is a multidisciplinary case with the aspects of entrepreneurship, marketing strategy and finance. This case is intended primarily for a course in entrepreneurship at the undergraduate or graduate level. This case is also ideal to be used as a capstone project in a degree programme for entrepreneurs.

AuthBridge is a leading Background Screening & Risk Assessment Company. Founded in 2005, its mission is to be among the top and dominant in every line of business it undertakes with its creative, continually improving solutions. AuthBridge has 200 clients in 2015, and wishes to grow to serve 2000 clients by 2020. The case outlines the process it has adopted till date, and the journey of entrepreneur in terms of how he reached there. The founder faces the dilemma of whether he should scale this business model in other countries (emerging markets?) and what part of his model should be imitated and what part adapted. Through this case learners can understand the entrepreneurial journey of a serial entrepreneur and how he identified an opportunity in the market. The case also enables classroom discussions on developing a business model from the scratch, and how to set up efficient processes in a new venture.

Family business

This case study is relevant for undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, specifically in the field of entrepreneurship. This case can be applied in the family business and entrepreneurship module.

This case highlights the issue of succession planning in a family business. It describes the problem faced by the founder of a security service company, Kurniawan Security Services Sdn Bhd., in handing over his business to his sons. The case depicts the occurrence of conflicts as one of the common problems in running a family business which, in the end, may affect the perpetuity of the business concerns.

Upon completion of the case analysis, students should be able to explain the concept of entrepreneurship in the context of a family business, discuss the issue of succession planning commonly associated with running a family business, analyse critically the nature of conflicts that may occur in a family business and suggest how the problem(s) can be attempted to be solved from within the business management perspectives.

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

Pebble Technology Corporation (Pebble) was an early entrant into the smartwatch industry. Pebble’s Founder, Eric Migicovsky, began thinking about creating a smartwatch in 2008 while still an undergraduate engineering student. After selling about 1,500 prototype watches, he was accepted into Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y Combinator business start-up program. Finding it difficult to attract investors, Migicovsky launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised a record-breaking $10.27m on Kickstarter. The case concludes shortly after Apple’s unveiling of its soon-to-be-released Apple Watch. The case provides an opportunity to evaluate Pebble’s various strategic options at the time of Apple’s announcement.

The authors observed over 30 h of video and audio recordings of speeches, interviews and other events involving Pebble’s founder, other Pebble executives, investors and competitors. These recordings are all publicly available. Whenever possible, the authors also reviewed the Twitter feeds, Facebook sites and personal websites of Pebble’s top executives over time. Similarly, the authors followed Pebble’s official website, corporate blog and Kickstarter campaign websites. The authors also drew from numerous media reports. Due to the public nature of the data, no company release is provided nor has any information been disguised in any way.

The case is designed for both undergraduate and graduate students for courses in strategic management.

After completing the case, students should be able to understand: the importance and uniqueness of the individual market and developing a suitable marketing strategy. The concept of value creation and learn the importance of developing the right value proposition to compete and succeed in a market. The target audience and how to create the right marketing mix. Competition in a digital landscape and the importance of developing an appropriate strategy to counter its rivals and position the brand effectively.

During his visit to India in December 2019, Netflix’s founder and chief executive officer Reed Hastings talked about a series of steps the company had taken in the recent past to successfully face stiff competition and move towards achieving its stated target of 100 million viewers. These steps involved significant changes in their marketing mix such as reworking their pricing, developing a rich portfolio of Indian content and building various partnerships. Since Netflix’s launch in India (December 2016), it faced fierce competition from players such as Hotstar and Amazon Prime, both of whom had developed a rich portfolio of Indian content and adopted a very aggressive pricing strategy thus, making these changes essential. At the time of their launch, Netflix had set a very ambitious target of gaining 100 million viewers within five years (by 2021) while adopting a premium pricing strategy and positioning themselves uniquely based on their international content. They quickly learned that they would have to reevaluate their approach if they wanted to achieve their target on time. The changes announced by Hastings were an effort in that direction. The moot question was whether these steps would help Netflix India reach its goal. This challenge was further compounded by an almost 40% hike in data tariffs by three major wireless carriers considering most Indians watched over-the-top media content on their mobile phones.

The case is designed for undergraduates, as well as for fundamental marketing courses in the Master of Business Administration and other graduate level programmes. It can be taught in the Principles of Marketing, Marketing Strategy and International Marketing courses. It is ideal for topics such as understanding the operation of a digital business in a new market, customer value creation and value drivers, brand and brand positioning, product promotion, strategies for business growth and expansion, fighting competition in a digital landscape.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Management of technology, technological innovation, business innovation and new product development, innovation, design and strategy, entrepreneurship innovation and leadership strategic planning of technological innovation.

MBA.

KidZania® is a Mexican company of family entertainment centers, founded in 1996 by Luis Javier Laresgoiti Fernández and fully developed by Xavier López Ancona. An innovative concept inspired in a fusion of nursery and theme park, KidZania®, brings together strong brands as partners to support their own and offer a complete entertainment and educational experience to kids between two and 16 years old. A unique business model, involvement of experts and a committed board of directors has been the key to the innovation of KidZania®. Its managers, by 2011, operate eight centers – two in Mexico, two in Japan and the rest in Indonesia, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and South Korea – and have plans to expand to more countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe in 2011 and finally to the USA. The future of KidZania® seemed bright, and the manager of the company believed that the growth appeared unstoppable because the purpose was to grow on 100 percent. The strategy appeared clear: dominate in the emerging and consolidated markets (big cities) in order to strengthen its competitive position and then, enter the US market with all the muscle and take the lead in the biggest market. But what was the competition going to do about it? What will the moves be for big players like Walt Disney – which had revenues of US$38.06 billion (USSEC, 2010), for example? Will the competitors try to buy the new entrant in order to build it up or to disappear it? Or will they try to imitate KidZania®? What would be the future of this new edutainment business model?

This case has been used in executive and MBA courses in creating and sustaining innovation, recognizing disruptive technologies, and in identifying effective methods of marketing a new innovative business model. Instructors can use the case to achieve the following two learning objectives: the KidZania® case helps students to refine their understanding of the model of disruption. They are forced to look closely at the product/service and decide whether it is a disruptive innovation or a sustaining innovation. This close examination becomes a helpful tool as students think about what decisions they would make to secure the success of the KidZania® in the entertainment market. The KidZania® case allows students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of the model “skating to where the money is”. Based on their analysis of the company and product students, must decide whether the KidZania® is a business that will produce sustained revenue and is worth investing in.

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

This case involves a real-life Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Sir Allen Stanford, a man who bribed Antiguan regulators and a certified public accountant firm to perpetuate his scam. The case includes the process of making victims whole, which involves a court-initiated clawback process: taking back payouts to investors or charities to redistribute the funds to other fraud victims who did not receive their fair payout. Students apply theory learned in an upper-level fraud or forensic accounting course. Finally, the case addresses the aftermath of a fraud scheme.

Ponzi schemes – one of the most common types of investment fraud – have caused investors to lose billions of dollars. Because of the prevalence of Ponzi schemes and the ramifications to investors, it is important for business students to understand the nature of these schemes and to learn how to recognize them. As future business professionals, students will be charged with recognizing a Ponzi scheme early and uncovering it before investors lose their investments.

This case is designed for upper-level undergraduate students or graduate students taking a fraud or forensic accounting course, which is best introduced after professors cover Ponzi schemes and also these concepts: fraud triangle, fraud diamond and fraud red flags.

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.