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The learning outcomes are as follows: to analyze host market characteristics and consumer behavior to develop sound value propositions; to distinguish the characteristics of traditional retail as opposed to the ones of modern retail; to identify the potential benefits and challenges of working with traditional retail; to discuss how informality may affect business relations; and to identify potential avenues to align divergent interests between the focal firm and traditional retailers.

The case described the situation faced by French International Company (FICO), a leading manufacturer of cigarettes, after the acquisition of Fosforera Colombiana (FOCOSA) in Colombia. FICO aimed to leverage the leadership position of FOCOSA and of its flagship brand Ferrari Lights that possess a 60% market share. However, after just a few months, it was clear that the acquired subsidiary was not performing adequately. The financial results obtained were disastrous. To face this situation, FICO appointed as the new marketing director to Waldo Tarantini who has experienced dealing with informal markets. To be aligned to the Colombian consumption pattern of five cigarettes daily, Waldo decided to launch a new presentation of the leading brand denominated Ferrari five, a package of 5 cigarettes at COP 1000. Considering that more than 60% of the sale can be explained by traditional retail, it was mandatory to secure its participation. Nevertheless, traditional retailers obtained up to 56% margin by selling single sticks. Waldo and his team rapidly needed to craft a commercial strategy to secure the participation of traditional retailers in a market plagued by informality, smuggling products and lack of control from national authorities.

The case is intended to be used at the early stages of post-graduate studies and in executive education programs addressing issues such as emerging markets, informality, the base of the pyramid, trade marketing and product launches. In particular, the case can be used in MSc in Marketing’s students, first-year MBA students or executives following short courses. The field of studies in which the case should be taught is marketing or trade marketing in particular when analyzing emerging economies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Entrepreneurship.

This case is suitable for graduate-level programmes in business management, as well as for executive education programmes.

Mabel Simpson, the sole proprietor of the award-winning mSimps fashion accessories house in Ghana, must choose from among three options for scaling up her business: an offer from a private investor for GHS 100,000 in exchange for 51 per cent stake in mSimps; or 30 per cent stake for half the amount; an offer from a fashion industry expert for GHS 10,000 in exchange for 30 per cent ownership; or a restructuring of her business model and value chain to enable her release cash to grow her business organically.

Students should be able to: understand the interplay of choice and trade-offs in business management and apply theory-driven frameworks in making optimal choices and analytically assess instances of tension between the art (e.g. passion, emotional stakes, psychological and other influences on business management philosophies) and science (e.g. the need for business skills, use of effective models and the quest for production efficiency) of business management.

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

Public sector management, policy-making, sustainable development, post-Communism.

The case is designed to be used with undergraduate-level and MBA/MPA students. With undergraduate levels, the case can be used on the subject strategic management. In MBA/MPA programs, this case can be used in subjects such as strategic planning for public administration. Here, it can be stressed as being about the problems faced by a country on the long road toward democracy. Issues to be discussed in class include: environmental scanning, competitiveness, public policies and strategic agenda.

At the most general level, the case allows for the analysis and evaluation of the strategy and performance of the Albania from 1928 to 2014 along economic, political and social dimensions, using the techniques of country analysis (see Country Analysis Framework, HBS No. 389-080). Depending on time limitations and the particular objectives of the individual instructor, the case can be used to explore all phases of the nation's development or, alternatively, to focus on a specific era, such as Albania, in the way toward a free market economy. The case provides a setting in which to explore the diamond model as a tool for analyzing competitiveness and setting the economic policy agenda. In the Albania case, we highlight diamond analysis in an emerging economy. Albania also highlights the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, and the importance of a cross-border regional integration in competitiveness.

The case is written to serve a number of purposes: Understanding the problems and challenges to sustainable development, especially in a post-communist emerging economy like Albania. The transition/changes that all policymakers have to go through in their efforts for sustainable development of the country. To discuss production factors and the importance of a growth model based on the production factors.

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

Wall Street hedge fund manager Kim Meyer is considering investing in an SFA (slate financing arrangement) in Hollywood. Dave Griffith, a Hollywood producer, is pitching for the investment and has conducted a broad analysis of recent movie data to determine the important drivers of a movie’s success. In order to convince Meyer to invest in an SFA, Griffith must anticipate possible questions to maximize his persuasiveness.

Students will analyze the factors driving a movie’s revenue using various statistical methods, including calculating point estimates, computing confidence intervals, conducting hypothesis tests, and developing regression models (in which they must both choose the relevant set of independent variables as well as determine an appropriate functional form for the regression equation). The case also requires the interpretation of the quantitative findings in the context of the application.

Development of legitimate teaching cases demands cases be factual, that is that they use “real people, real companies, real situations,” and, usually, present time. Rarely, do cases deal with historical happenings in which lives, as well as fortunes, could be lost to achieve desired ends. History provides rich material on which to build teaching cases with the added advantage of acquainting students with the past and the influence the past has in shaping the future. Answers to the question of “Why use historical teaching cases” are related to the more general question of “Why study history.” Both questions are addressed.

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.

Learning outcomes are as follows: understanding the importance of aligning an entrepreneur’s personal orientation and values (e.g. detachment from the enterprise) with business decisions related to enterprise development; appreciating how prior exposure to business settings can be a source of entrepreneurship pursuits for an entrepreneur; and understand whether a different type of leadership can be instrumental in the creation, running and growth of an entrepreneurial venture, especially in terms of introducing differentiated offerings in the target market.

The case is about an entrepreneur, Sangeeth Varghese, with a very humble and conservative background, who worked in various firms, small and large, and become a young global leader at World Economic Forum, before foraying into entrepreneurship. He is driven by the core values of detachment and democratization, which is reflected throughout his life course and has developed his own views on leadership. After running his first venture LeadCap Ventures with some measure of success, Sangeeth is about to launch his new venture LeadBurg, a web- and mobile-based application for behavioral rating and competency discovery for individuals. The predicament for Sangeeth is about the uncertainties related to the new launch from a business perspective, as well as the concern whether the core principles of democratization and detachment that he identified with, would stand the test in this launch.

Master level program (e.g. MBA).

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case includes theoretical references to family business, organizational culture, resource-based value and leadership.

The case combines primary and secondary data. There is ample public information about Martin Guitar including histories of the company and its instruments. These were used for background. Primary data were provided by the company in the form of customized data and interviews.. The case writer has served Martin Guitar as a consultant and also plays Martin instruments. The case writer had numerous opportunities to interview Chris and his key lieutenants.

In 2019, C.F. Martin IV (Chris) was in his fourth decade leading one of the America’s oldest family-owned companies, C.F. Martin & Co., Inc. Martin Guitar is a globally known maker of fine guitars that are prized by collectors, working musicians and amateur musicians. Chris was raised in the family business and took on the CEO’s position at the age of 30. The case describes the company’s management practices and the culture that has emerged from them. In 2019, at age 64, Chris confronted issues faced by his predecessors over multiple generations: how to prepare the company for succession, and maintain its strong performance as a family-owned company in a dynamic industry environment.

The case is designed for a management course for upper-level undergraduates.

This case, along with its B case (UVA-QA-0865), is an effective vehicle for introducing students to the use of machine-learning techniques for classification. The specific context is predicting customer retention based on a wide range of customer attributes/features. The specific techniques could include (but are not limited to): regressions (linear and logistic), variable selection (forward/backward and stepwise), regularizations (e.g., LASSO), classification and regression trees (CART), random forests, graduate boosted trees (xgboost), neural networks, and support vector machines (SVM).

The case is suitable for an advanced data analysis (data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence) class at all levels: upper-level business undergraduate, MBA, EMBA, as well as specialized graduate or undergraduate programs in analytics (e.g., masters of science in business analytics [MSBA] and masters of management analytics [MMA]) and/or in management (e.g., masters of science in management [MScM] and masters in management [MiM, MM]).

The teaching note for the case contains the pedagogy and the analyses, alongside the detailed explanations of the various techniques and their implementations in R (code provided in Exhibits and supplementary files). Python code, as well as the spreadsheet implementation in XLMiner, are available upon request.

The learning outcomes are as follows: decision-making in the areas of business plan, business strategy, financial management, profit planning and marketing, learning from outer business environment, succession planning for first-generation entrepreneur and choosing appropriate source of financing and drivers for diversification.

Immersed in sipping green tea in his capacious office lounge, the octogenarian Arjun Mehta introspected on the trials and tribulations of his journey as an entrepreneur, the voyage which started four decades ago. From 1976 to 2018, the business has now traversed three generations. Starting with Spice Mart (Sole Proprietor) to Hindware and Lament Construction (partnership firms) to Starlite Homes Pvt. Ltd. (corporate entity), Mr Mehta witnessed transformation and restructuring in organization with every new generation which characterized the evolution of family business. Handholding children to take up the reins of Spice Mart was not a calculated choice. Yet it is remarkable to study the growth in organizational structure of the regional family business. As a self-made entrepreneur, morals, ethics and value system are vital ingredients steering the organic growth story. Third-generation Mehta’s are enterprising, aspiring and visionary. With the incorporation of a corporate entity, they convinced themselves to bring inorganic growth in their business. Arjun Mehta gleamed with pride as Spice Mart partakes an organized structure which had lost prominence with the second-generation entrepreneurs. But he is equally hammered with juxtaposed thoughts. He contemplates whether the integration of retail business with real estate corroborates sustainable innovation. Will independent businesses create the brand’s footprints perpetually? Should the millennial confine business natively or should they grow internationally and become a conglomerate?

The case can be exclusively taught to masters and executive education class of students pursuing entrepreneurship and business management courses. The case will supplement understanding of theories of entrepreneurship and dimensions of family businesses in emerging economies.

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.