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After completion of the case study, the participants would be able to understand the challenges in building a sustainable homestay tourism business; develop a positioning statement for La Pinekonez which builds a unique competitive advantage; and outline elements of the business strategy to profitably sustain and grow a sustainable tourism homestay in terms of service offering, pricing, marketing and operations.

La Pinekonez Homestay, located in the beautiful region of Himachal Pradesh, India, is the subject of this case study, which explores both its successes and its difficulties. In August 2022, Arvind, the dedicated sole proprietor of La Pinekonez, grappled with multifaceted challenges, the first being the foray of established hotel chains into the homestay business. As the protagonist, was is in dilemma of preserving La Pinekonez’s unique identity amidst corporate competitors, particularly with regards to differentiating from the expanding hotel chains. The clash between customer expectations for hotel-like amenities and the homestay’s commitment to sustainable tourism presented a crucial challenge. Negative reviews questioning the authenticity of La Pinekonez’s green initiatives heightened the complexity. Adding to Arvind’s predicament were the seasonal fluctuations in tourist inflow and his aspiration to embrace immersive tourism trends. This case study facilitates exploration of strategic positioning, sustainability management and marketing strategies in the dynamic and competitive hospitality industry. It also offers insights into the complexities of balancing differentiation, customer satisfaction and sustainability while navigating the evolving landscape of tourism trends.

This case study is suitable for students of tourism and hospitality management at postgraduate level. The case study can be discussed once the basic concepts of hospitality management and service dimensions are covered.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

This case replaces UVA-M-0837. It can be used in a variety of marketing and strategy classes to understand how (1) at a macro level, a shift in consumer and environmental factors can impact firm strategy and (2) at a micro level, an e-mail-based marketing campaign designed to address these changes can impact firm-level performance.

The case puts the students in the position of CEO Robert Huth as he is preparing for a board meeting. He had taken David's Bridal from a loss in 1996 to sales of over $1 billion by 2011, but he was concerned about future growth. People were waiting longer and longer to get married and, once they decided to, were spending much less than in the past, so the industry had seen year-over-year declines since 2007. How would David's Bridal establish its brand in the minds of a new generation of brides who shopped, purchased, and decided differently than had brides in past generations?

Research for the case study was conducted using a combination of semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources.

This case traces the international expansion of Sadowsky Guitars’ bass guitar product line. Roger Sadowsky is one of the most respected instrument makers in the world and gained early acclaim for his outstanding repair and restoration work on guitars and basses. Some of his early clients included Prince, Will Lee (The Tonight Show), Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, Jason Newsted of Metallica, Eddie Van Halen and Marcus Miller. Roger’s reputation and the demand for his instruments led to some customers having to wait for more than a year to obtain the chance to purchase a Sadowsky instrument, while others were unable to do so due to financial constraints. In 2003, Roger made the decision to form Sadowsky Japan to begin the contract manufacturing of more affordable Sadowsky instruments in Tokyo, Japan. As the company grew in size, Roger realized he was becoming more focused on running a business than building instruments. Furthermore, his Japanese partners were only interested in serving the Japanese market. This required him to handle the sales and distribution in the remaining parts of the world. In December of 2019, he announced a new, exclusive licensing agreement and distribution partnership between Sadowsky Guitars and Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG. The new agreement allowed Roger to continue running the Sadowsky NYC Custom Shop while Warwick would take over building and distributing the Metro instruments and a less-expensive, Chinese-built version of the MetroExpress instruments.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate-level courses related to marketing and consumer behavior. The case walks students through a real-life scenario when the founder of a well-known musical brand sought to expand internationally as a way to meet growing market demand. Students are asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the five key international market entry strategies: exporting, licensing, contract manufacturing, joint ventures and investment (equity/acquisition).

The case works well in the classroom, even if people are unfamiliar with the musical instrument retail industry. Participants are most likely aware of some of the artists and musicians mentioned in the case. Some may also be or know musicians. The instructor should be able to quickly engage participants in a lively discussion about Roger Sadowsky’s vision for his instruments and the opportunities and challenges of expanding product offerings and increasing market share.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

This compact case provides a relatively large data set that students explore using visualization and a Tableau dynamic dashboard that they create. Students were asked to describe what the data set contained in relation to employee attrition experience of Baca Beverage Distributors (BBD). The application and managerial questions are set in human resources and a company that is facing high attrition during the pandemic.

BBD shared their data and problem scenario for this compact case. The protagonist, Morgan Matthews, was the authors’ contact and provided significant clarification and guidance about the data. Both the company and the protagonist have been disguised. Some of the job positions have been rephrased. All names of employees, supervisors and managers have been replaced with codes.

During the 2020–2022 pandemic years, BBD experienced, like many companies, a higher than usual employee turnover rate and Morgan Matthews, Director of People, was concerned. Not only was it time-consuming, expensive and disruptive but the company had prided itself on being a good place to work. Were they hiring the right people, people that fit the company culture and people that fit the positions for which they were hired? The company had been using the Predictive Index [1] when on-boarding employees. In addition, there were results from self-reviews and manager reviews that could be used. Morgan wondered if data visualization and visual analytics would be useful in describing their employees and whether it would reveal any opportunities to improve the turnover rate. Before seeking a solution for the high turnover, it was important to step back and learn what the data said about who was leaving and the reasons they gave for leaving.

This compact case can be used in courses that include visualization using Tableau and dashboards. As it is a compact case, it requires less preparation time from the students and less class time for discussion. The case is for students who have been recently introduced to business analytics, specifically visualization and data storytelling with Tableau. For this reason, significant guidance has been provided in the case assignment. The level of the case can be adjusted by the amount of guidance provided in the case assignment. Courses include introduction to business analytics, descriptive analytics and visualization, communication through data storytelling. The case can be used for all modalities – in person, hybrid, online. The authors use it here for visualization and dynamic dashboards but using the same data set and compact case description, exploratory data analysis could be assigned.

Supplementary material for this article can be found online.