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The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to strategically evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, threats and resulting opportunities that face an entrepreneurial startup. To apply the academic principle of competitiveness and evaluate the competitive advantage of the business and its competitors through the application of the Porter’s five forces model. To evaluate the contextual tensions that entrepreneurial ventures face, and how these affect the growth of a sustainable business. To develop the skills to create a target market analysis by using segmentation, targeting and positioning principles. To evaluate the best strategic actions to grow a business through the lens of sustainable entrepreneurship, by using principles such as the triple bottom line and people, opportunity, context and deal and framework.

The case look at business challenges faced by an entrepreneur, Renshia Manuel, the CEO of GrowBox, as she attempts to balance the profitability and social impact of her venture in Cape Town, South Africa. GrowBox sells customisable self-contained wooden boxes equipped with all materials to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs for consumers. Large volumes of boxes are often purchased by corporate clients who donated these to lower-income communities as part of their social responsibility projects. Additional landscaping and food-scaping services make up another revenue stream of the business. The case study documents the conception of GrowBox in 2016 and the growth of the business in the first four years of operation. The theft of equipment, and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff due to the volatile social climate of where the business was situated, have put the business under great financial pressure and reduced the efficiency of business processes. The case highlights a number of the harsh realities of sustainable entrepreneurship where both profitability and social impact are vitally important to ensure business sustainability. The case dilemma involves the choices faced by Renshia at the beginning of 2020 regarding the future, sustainable growth of the business.

The target audience for this teaching case is primarily business students at a postgraduate level, particularly those studying in the fields of sustainable entrepreneurship and social development, as well as marketing in emerging markets. This teaching case is intended to be used as a case study in postgraduate business programmes such as postgraduate diplomas in management, specialist Masters programmes such as those focussed on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship or social development, as well as those studying a Master of Business Administration or related executive education programme.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes are as follows:• demonstrate an understanding of the fruit farming process;• compare the pros and cons of farming different fruits;• understand the general characteristics of entrepreneurs and identify the issues they face;• compare the risk and returns from two types of investments;• apply capital budgeting techniques to ascertain the best available investment option; and• perform sensitivity analysis based on different anticipated situations for a new business.

Since his birth, Mr Bashir Khan, a 45-year-old father of four, lived as a farmer in Kallar Kahar, Pakistan. He owned 15 acres of land which he used to cultivate wheat and millet. He decided to start fruit farming after harvesting wheat in April 2021 to satisfy his long-standing desire to own a garden. He recently met a friend who was earning well from grape farming, who suggested that Khan set up a vineyard farm which could become a profitable venture for him. At the same time, Khan learned that the government had declared the Potohar region of Pakistan an olive valley, and was giving massive subsidies on olive cultivation. Khan now had a choice of fruits to plant on his land. One of his relatives, Omar Khayam, was an accountant at a firm. Khayam offered to conduct a feasibility analysis for Khan, to provide the relevant data, and help Khan select a high profit-yielding fruit farm.

Introductory finance courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as executive training courses focused on the agri-finance discipline.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Andreas Stihl AG is the world's leading manufacturer of chain saws and other outdoor handheld power equipment. Based on marketing challenges in its high-volume retail channel—mass merchants such as The Home Depot and Lowe's—Stihl's U.S. unit has narrowed its distribution system to a single channel: independent retail dealers specializing in yard maintenance equipment. This risky and highly publicized decision has proved extremely successful, raising profits, attracting more dealers into exclusive relationships with Stihl, and strengthening the brand's top-quality positioning. But Stihl management are concerned that this channel system may not fit tomorrow's demographics, dominated by homeowners from the so-called Generation X and Generation Y. The case outlines Stihl's business and channel systems and customer needs, then poses a series of questions that management believes must be answered to determine whether to maintain or move away from reliance on its specialty retailers and how to adapt its system.

To understand issues related to retail channel strategy development in fast-changing consumer markets, as well as the challenges of adapting legacy routes-to-market systems to changing consumer service output demands.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to strategy and sustainable business practices; apply relevant concepts and theories of corporate social responsibility and governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze the different strengths and weaknesses of the organization when making a decision that would affect the company strategy.

Claire Humphry was the General Manager at the renowned The Nacre Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. Claire had a very busy job as she had many people who reported to her, and the hotel was always full of guests. One of the things Claire also managed was the restaurant OceanSound that was owned and operated by her hotel. OceanSound was a very thematic restaurant that specialized in making sculptures of food for special events. On the New Year’s Day in 2023, Claire came to work ready to tackle what was sure to be a long and busy day. However, Claire had not anticipated exactly how taxing the day would end up being. During Claire’s talks with her colleagues throughout the day, her conversation with her friend, the head chef of OceanSound, Poh, would nag at her head for the rest of the day based on the events that followed. The New Year’s special sculpture at OceanSound was to be a large rabbit made of cake to commemorate 2023 being the year of the rabbit according to Chinese zodiac. This is usually kept secret until the sculpture is revealed; but somehow this information had been leaked. This led to The Nacre Hotel and OceanSound being in the spotlight for bad reasons as this sparked a debate online regarding food wastage. This escalated quickly and even led to a famous food influencer commenting on this using specifically The Nacre’s name. Activists also quickly emerged in front of the hotel to protest the creation of sculptures and the food wastage in Malaysian hospitality industry, seeking to make an example out of The Nacre Hotel. The online criticism died down and was eventually replaced by praise for the sculpture. The activists were also eventually asked by the hotel security to leave, which led to the rest of the day to go as expected for a New Year’s Day at The Nacre. However, Claire’s nagging suspicion that they were not out of the woods led her to start looking into food wastage in the hospitality industry in Malaysia to educate herself and bring it up in a future meeting. Two days after this incident, on January 3, 2023, Claire found The Nacre Hotel posted on the newspaper headlines, dissecting the food wastage associated with the hotel now. After getting an urgent phone call from the Regional Manager, who was pressured by the board and shareholders, Claire decided the time to address this issue could not be delayed any longer. She wrote an email to her strategy team to come up with some ideas for possible solutions to the issue and to present them in a group meeting within a week’s time. At the conclusion of the meeting, Claire was contemplating about the decision that she had to make if she wanted The Nacre Hotel to continue operating successfully in Malaysia’s hospitality industry.

The main theoretical concepts illustrated in the case include corporate governance approaches, types of corporate social responsibility, stakeholders’ prioritization, organizational culture, organizational structure, industry analysis and strategic choices. Therefore, this case study can be used in a upper-level undergraduate business courses in the field of Strategic Management and Corporate Social Responsibility. The case study can be successfully used in a capstone course on Business Policy and Strategy, when tackling the concepts of corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability strategy and corporate governance. Under this scenario, the usage of conceptual frameworks from Chapters 2 and 3 of the textbook titled “Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability” by Wheelen and Hunger would be required. This case study can also be successfully applied to MBA level courses on Strategic Management in a Globalized World. In this case, the latest edition of the textbook titled “Exploring Strategy” by Whittington et al., could be used (particularly, the material from Chapters 2–9, 11, 14 and 15). Additionally, the case could also be used in courses related to Tourism and Hospitality, especially in schools which have specialized programs in this field.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

Emerging Markets.

Undergraduate, Masters.

Pacari Chocolate is the flagship brand of SKS Farms CIA Ltda., located in Quito, Ecuador. The company specializes in organic chocolate production which it sells in Ecuador and exports to other Latin American, European and North American markets. The company began operation in 2002, founded by Carla Barbotó and her husband Santiago Peralta. Carla is the Director of SKS and Santiago is General Manager. The case is set just after Santiago negotiated a deal to supply Emirates Airlines with mini bars to be distributed to flight passengers. Santiago is excited about this new deal, which will provide a new revenue stream, enhance brand image and potentially create new customers. Carla and Santiago pursue excellence with their products, as evidenced by over 160 awards, many globally recognized. However, their mission is also very much social in that they seek to improve the lives of Andean farmers, indigenous peoples and broader Ecuadorean society. The principle author uses this case in a course on innovative approaches to engaging emerging market opportunities, in which shared (social + economic) value and the formation of strong national industries are key outcomes, to be addressed through complementary market and non-market entrepreneurship strategies.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: to identify the contextual challenges faced by an emerging market firm, and explain what must be done to overcome them; to identify the role of a firm in developing a national competency in an agricultural product industry; to demonstrate the creation of “shared value” and examine how the social mission of a company can reinforce and sustain its economic value creating activities; and to generate and evaluate options for developing international markets when a firm has limited resources to invest in marketing activities.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

At the end of the case study discussion, students will able to state the importance of outsourcing with comparing pros and cons in business decision-making; review the value bestowed to the community in using sustainable raw material while at the same time conserving the ancient style of artwork particular to the area; discuss the utility of the products manufactured by “Flying Colours,” especially for the lockdown period which was because of the pandemic; and demonstrate and interpret the use of shark and mosquito bite matrix.

Arun Kumar Patni, 47, and his wife Neelima Patni, 43, are co-founders of Flying Colours, a start-up company based in Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, India. Their enterprise was engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of bird products and accessories, including bird feeders, bird houses, earthen water bowls, etc. In July 2020, post-lockdown, they were desperate to hire carpenters to restart their factory. However, COVID-19 posed a serious challenge, making it very difficult to replace their skilled carpenters, who had returned to their native places and had not come back. This disrupted production and order fulfilment. Keeping this situation in perspective in anticipation of the continuing pandemic crisis, Neelima was in favour of outsourcing basic production and designing the birdfeed decoration and artwork in-house. Meanwhile, Arun instead favoured continuing full in-house production as before, by hiring replacement carpenters. Yet for an in-house full-scale production, procuring raw material was a difficult task because of the lockdown. The situation had earlier taken a turn for the worse when Arun had advertised an exchange marketing policy to let customers return their old bird feeders for a 20% discount on a new one. This campaign was a huge success and resulted in a sales spike but unfortunately it caused a huge stock of returned products in their warehouse. Arun initially planned to repair and resell them as refurbished products. It now seemed impossible, because local carpenters demanded higher labour charges than the regular carpenters did. Flying Colours had provided skills workshops and hired external trainers to train unskilled carpenters prior to lockdown, so now all the training investment was in vain. Cash liquidity, sales, marketing, etc. were almost at a standstill.

This case particularly focuses on undergraduate-level students pursuing business or commerce programs, especially those studying core course: Entrepreneurial Strategic Management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

After decades of successful expansion, The Reader's Digest Association's products were mature. With an average readership age for the flagship Reader's Digest magazine of 50.3 in 2004, efforts to develop new products had so far failed to entice a significant number of younger customers. Following a financial downturn in 1996, positive financial results remained illusive. Several major changes instituted by Thomas O. Ryder, CEO since 1998, including acquisitions, re-capitalization, restructuring and systematic re-engineering of the corporate culture, had proven mildly successful, but RDA, as well as the entire publishing industry, faced a persistent decline in profitability. Could RDA fulfill its stated mission to create “products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world”, and could it do this by continuing to rely on the 80-year old Reader's Digest magazine?

The student's task is to develop a comprehensive strategy for Briggs & Stratton, which is facing severe competition and margin pressures. A major component of the strategy to be considered is whether to implement economic value added (EVA) as a new performance measurement for management. The case is designed to serve as an introduction to how to compute and use EVA. It emphasizes the importance of performance evaluation as part of a larger strategic plan. A teaching note is available to registered faculty, as well as two video supplements to enhance student learning.

The case seeks an intensive reading, research and a stimulating in-class discussion on implementing marketing strategy mixed with creating experience in the service industry creating a Pull branding. The case is also open to other angles as per the other intents and context of the course and course instructor. Some of the course angles are as follows: sales promotion, customer relationship management (CRM), channel sales, international marketing and branding.

The case is suited to many courses including online formats and executive training workshops. It is good for discussion with service industry. Some of the target groups are listed below: MBA Course, core course of strategic management, specialisation courses in service marketing, CRM and sales promotion, executive training workshops on strategy formulations, faculty development workshops on teaching pedagogy through cases and internal marketing and capstone courses.

Millionaires Holidays & Resorts Ltd. (MHRL) is a part of the Leisure and Hospitality sector of the Millionaires Group and brings to the industry values such as Reliability, Trust and Customer Satisfaction. Millionaires Club is a part of the Hospitality sector of the Millionaires Group. Taking advantage of the high income earned by Indians in the UAE, Millionaires Club has taken initiatives of expansion in the UAE market. The case talks about how Millionaires Club has become a Pull brand by providing unmatched family holiday experience in India where members feel proud to be part of special community. The case takes us through different marketing strategies being adopted by the organisation to ensure a successful foothold in the UAE market.

Understanding the process of service marketing, understanding how brands are built over time, analyzing deeply and energetically the United Arab Emirates holiday industry, analyzing the importance of customer satisfaction and CRM,, analyzing the importance of corporate social responsibility, understanding the importance of experiential marketing and developing futuristic ideas and thinking to change the way to see the use of marketing strategy in organisations.

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

Corporate diversification, product portfolio analysis, industry structure, international business expansion, beverage industry.

The case is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate MBA strategic management, international business strategy, and marketing strategy courses.

Thai Beverage Public Company Limited (ThaiBev) was Thailand's largest beverage company and was among Asia's major alcoholic beverage companies. The case situation takes place during the latter part of August 2010, two years after the public announcement of ThaiBev's ambitious intentions to become a comprehensive and integrated beverage company and after having recently re-launched its acquired Wrangyer energy brand, a move signaling ThaiBev's strong commitment to its non-alcoholic beverages. The case describes the beverage industries at the global, regional, and country level and discusses ThaiBev's range of businesses. Marut Buranasetkul, Senior Vice President of Corporate Service and Deputy Managing Director of Thai Beverage Marketing, the sales and marketing arm of ThaiBev, must decide on the direction for ThaiBev to pursue to bring ThaiBev's non-alcoholic beverages to account for at least 10 percent of the company's total revenue. This case presents a number of important strategic topics, particularly in discussing industry structure and competition, as well as diversification issues encountered by a firm that was attempting to create a greater balance between the revenue contributions from its market leading dominant businesses and that of its younger and newer business lines.

Students will: understand the challenges faced by large conglomerates wanting to change their market position; learn to apply different frameworks such as Porter's Five Force Model, portfolio analysis, SWOT and to assess the competitive environment; learn to evaluate a company's current product portfolio and to recommend strategies to improve its allocation of resources; and learn to identify key success factors necessary to compete in a highly competitive industry.

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