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For the design of this case study, the authors used primary sources of information from the shops visited by them in preparation of the case and website of Fred Perry and secondary sources of information from both academic and journalistic publications.

Fred Perry is a premium clothing brand, well-known for its polo shirts. It was created by Mr Fred Perry, a British tennis player. The brand’s stated values are integrity, personality and individuality. Throughout its history, the brand has been adopted by different British subcultures but recently it has faced a challenge because of the brand appropriation by the Proud Boys, a US far-right white supremacy group and other extremist groups as Antifa and hooligans. The nature and actions of the group mean that Fred Perry runs the risk of losing control over its brand equity. This brand hijack means that Fred Perry risks alienating some of its customers by openly opposing the group but also by embracing this subculture’s appropriation. Practically, the brand opposed the appropriation in a press release and by putting an end to the sale of the black and yellow polo shirts in the USA and Canada. Fred Perry has also made a lot of efforts to reposition the brand away from extremist groups while maintaining its strong historical and cultural roots. Through this case study, students will have the opportunity to discuss this topic and explore solutions for brands that face this type of dilemma.

This case is designed to be used in a marketing management, brand strategy or consumer behavior/culture course, especially in the subfield of market segmentation in the telecommunications sector. Specifically, this case is designed for college seniors or master students with basic strategic marketing training. This case will help students understand the difference between the brand identity that the brand owners intend and the brand image that consumers actually perceive. It provides the basis of discussions on the topics of brand management, consumer culture, consumers-brands relationships, brand architecture, brand equity, brand appropriation and repositioning strategy.

Implementing a sustainability strategy requires firms to consider economic, strategic, environmental, and community perspectives. Suitable for MBA, undergraduate, and executive learners, this sustainability case covers innovation, intrapreneurship, and strategy. A technical note entitled, “Corporate Greenhouse Accounting: Carbon Footprint Analysis” (UVA-ENT-0113) is an effective complement. Frito-Lay’s Arizona facility pilots a program to take its snack chip manufacturing off the grid. Decision makers discuss operating, financial, marketing, and corporate strategy as the facility calculates its carbon footprint, converts to non-fossil-fuel energy sources, and stops relying on the scarce local water supply.

The strategic management literature states that firms who wish to have a competitive advantage through high customer service (rapid response) and product differentiation need to restructure their organization into empowered, self-managed work units so as to ensure that there is “value-added” at each stage of the value chain. (Porter, 1985; Hill and Jones, 2001) In this case, Vanguard altered part of its structure through the development of teams in order to maximize its operations; and given their results Vanguard successfully put theory into practice. When the major supporter of team management, Mike Wesley, leaves the firm, he is replaced by Wendy Kiefer, a strong supporter of team structures. Her replacement, Shari Lastarza, however is the “old” assembly manager and does not buy into the team concept. Could this be anything but a formula for disaster?

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The authors perused hundreds of court documents and identified 28 that were most relevant to this case. The authors also used press interviews with the women highlighted in the case. The authors have no relationship with the company and no one from the company has reviewed the information presented in this case. As the case is drawn from sworn legal testimonies, interviews and related documents in the public domain, the authors did not have to seek approval for publication.

Pinterest touted itself as “the nicest place on the Internet.” It had an almost 80% female user base and purported to have an inclusive culture that embraced diversity. However, in June 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, two former female employees of color violated their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to publicly accuse Pinterest of racial and gender discrimination. In August 2020, Pinterest’s former Chief Operating Officer, Francoise Brougher, filed a lawsuit charging the company with gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination, and authored a public blog post titled, The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity, detailing her own experience with the company’s discriminatory culture. Three days later 236 of Pinterest’s 2,545 employees staged a virtual walkout and 445 employees signed a petition in an attempt to change Pinterest’s policies and culture. The case provides a brief overview of Pinterest, including its mission, values and organizational culture, and details several incidents and complaints by female and minority employees. The case questions whether employee complaints are a relatively narrow issue involving disgruntled former employees who did not fit at the organization or a much broader issue involving discrimination and managerial neglect in creating and maintaining a nondiscriminatory, inclusive culture. Students are encouraged to evaluate the situation in which Co-Founder, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Ben Silbermann finds himself, evaluate the actions taken and decide if Silbermann should take any additional actions to address the discrimination claims and ensure a positive culture for all employees.

This case is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate level courses in organizational behavior, human resource management and business law or any course where discrimination and workplace culture are discussed.

Brands are socially constructed (Askegaard, 2006) and are culturally dependent on the “cultural codes of branding” by taking into consideration the history, images and myths that can influence brand meaning (Schroeder, 2009). Brands can be of great value when they hold a favorable image in the consumer’s mind (Anholt, 2010). Regional differences and demographics can impact what has a favorable image in the consumer’s mind and can bias the expectancy set for consumers. When selecting a brand name, the SMILE and SCRATCH test should be used (Neck et al., 2018; Watkins, 2014). This name evaluation test can be used to assess the strength of a brand name. If the name has these five qualities, it should be kept, or you should “smile”: suggestive – it evokes positivity; meaningful – customers can understand it; imagery – it is visually memorable; legs – it lends itself well to a theme to run with; and emotional – it resonates with your market. On the contrary, if the name has any of these traits, it should be “scratched”: spelling-challenged – it is hard to spell; copycat – it is too similar to competitors’ names; restrictive – it would be hard to grow or evolve with; annoying – it is annoying; tame – it is lame or uninspired; curse of knowledge – only insiders or some people will understand it; and hard-to-pronounce – it is hard to say (Neck et al., 2018; Watkins, 2014). The marketing mix or 4P’s of marketing – product, price, promotion and place – is a set of tools business owners can use to achieve their marketing goals and is based on McCarthy’s (1960) work. The S.A.V.E. framework – solution, access, value and education (Ettenson et al., 2013) – has more recently been cited as a more modern replacement to the long used 4P’s model (Ettenson et al., 2013). Through this framework, business owners can work to align their brand to provide a solution to customers’ problems, give them access to the solution, provide value for customers and educate them about the product or service. The S.A.V.E. framework focuses on solutions, access, value and education rather than product, place, price and promotion. In this framework, the business should focus on meeting their customers’ needs and being accessible to customers along their entire journey from hearing about the company to making a purchase. Additionally, companies should provide value for their customers rather than solely worrying about price, and instead educate customers by providing information they care about (Ettenson et al., 2013; Neck et al., 2018).

Teaching case.

This case presents the story of Big Momma’s, a coffee shop in a deteriorated historic district in Springfield, Missouri. Big Momma’s owner Lyle, a black man in a predominantly white region, was new to the area and launched the business quickly, without much market testing of the concept or brand. Soon after launching, Lyle wondered if he was set up for doom as customers constantly ask for Momma or barbeque. It seemed necessary to take a critical look at the marketing and branding plans.

This case could have multiple uses, primarily for early stage undergraduate students studying entrepreneurship or integrated marketing communications. The case lines up nicely with the following textbook lessons. Entrepreneurship: the case can be used with Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset (Neck et al., 2018), chapter 16, lesson on branding with a specific tie to the SMILE and SCRATCH test described in Table 16.1 and the S.A.V.E. framework described on pages 453–454. It can also be used with Entrepreneurship (Zacharakis et al., 2018), chapter 6, lesson on marketing strategy for entrepreneurs with a specific tie to the sections on marketing mix and value proposition described on pages 183–198. Integrated marketing communications: this case can be used with Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications (Shrimp and Andrews, 2013), chapter 3, lesson on brand naming.

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

The blast at Beirut Port on the 4th of August was the cherry on the cake in a series of disastrous governmental failures manifested in the of lack of trust, an unprecedented economic crisis, hyperinflation, financial fallout, political bottle necks, toxic environmental situation and a vertical cleavage between the government and the people. The blast resulted in billions of dollars in losses both at the port and the surrounding Beirut area, destroyed more than 300,000 housing units, displaced their residents, ruined many artifacts of cultural heritage, injured thousands of people and killed hundreds. Definitely, it was a case of negligence in the storage of the Ammonium Nitrate, corruption, irresponsible leadership or all of these together. However, investigations are still underway to pinpoint the responsible individuals and to bring them to justice. This case looks at potential ways that could have prevented the blast, by questioning the reasons behind the non-voicing out of objections against the nature of the material stored unsafely for several years in Container 12 at the Port. Through the lens of Hadi Karim, a fictional character, the authors lead the readers to consider the disaster’s characterization, as well as applicable disaster management frameworks. The case also emphasizes the role of public leadership and leads the readers to consider measures and processes that could have been abided by to prevent the disaster.

Against the backdrop of the recent Beirut Port explosion, this case examines how events unfolded leading up to the tragedy, highlighting how it could have been avoided, as well as the managerial and ethical dimensions involved.

At the end of the case, students will be able to: 1. Characterize the disaster in terms of type and nature. 2. Analyze the blast by referring to the relevant disaster management frameworks. 3. Analyze the critical role of ethical and transformational leaders pre and post disaster. 4. Reflect on the role of employees in preventing disasters mainly through whistleblowing.

Shedding the light on an avoidable disaster, drawing lessons to avoid the occurrence of such events in the future, and raising awareness on disaster management and on whistleblowing as a tool in the ethical leader’s toolbox.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

After completion of the case study, the students will learn about the blue ocean strategies that are adopted by entrepreneurs when they are entering into a new business territory and be able to perform an industry analysis and understand the competitive advantage that a firm possesses in a new market using Porter’s five forces framework.

This case study is about Sushant, an entrepreneur, who started his entrepreneurial venture in water sports tourism along the coastlines of India. His core business was into offering kayaking and camping activities. However, he planned to scale up his business by expanding its geographical reach. To fulfill this, he was also planning to manufacture his own kayaks, which would increase economies of scale in the long run. This case study investigates the dilemma of whether he should first increase his service offerings before expanding geographically or focus on geographical expansion and then increase service offerings.

This case is designed to be taught at the post-graduate level (Master of Business Administration) for an entrepreneurship course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS3: Entrepreneurship.

This case covers the framework and process to determine fair value as specified in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 13. It illustrates an instance in which auditors interpret the concept of fair value to be consistent with other principles in standards such as the principle of prudence in the conceptual framework. In addition, a lot of the discussion in the case is applicable to accounting education in any regulatory jurisdictions given the convergence of US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and IFRS 13. In addition, while fair value accounting may have been designed to give investors more useful information, in practise it could involve highly subjective judgement and the resulting implementation may be affected by incentives of different stakeholders. The CK Tang’s case provides an excellent opportunity to discuss incentives of varies parties in determining the fair value in financial reporting decisions. In short, this case could be a good jumping-off point to talk about management and auditors’ incentives in financial reporting in general.

Publicly available information (e.g. financial reporting standards, corporate announcements and reports, news reports) was used as the basis for this case.

The case centres on an iconic Singaporean integrated retailing and property landlord entity: Tang holdings. As part of its succession planning, the company’s founding family decided to take its listing arm, C.K. Tang Limited (CK Tang hereafter), private in May 2006. The Tang brothers, who represented the controlling family, initiated several attempts to delist the company. The minority shareholders of CK Tang were unhappy that the offer price was below the net asset value of the company. The minority shareholders also highlighted that the reported fair value of the flagship Tang Plaza complex understated its highest and best use and might not possibly comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 13.

The case can be used for class discussions with undergraduate students or master students in intermediate accounting courses.

Organisational Development, Organisational Behaviour, Leadership Change.

Master of Business Administration, postgraduate studies, middle or senior managers on open programmes.

The case focuses on the dilemma that Douglas Lines, Nedbank’s Divisional Executive for Strategic Business Unit, South Africa, faced when a new sense of urgency was required to cultivate a culture of collaboration in Nedbank to overcome their silo-mentality.

Examine the current and recommend the preferred culture of Nedbank to enable collaboration; critically analyse and evaluate the suitability of the current structure recommend restructuring; insight into how contextual leadership contributes to collaboration in organisations; present judgement of strategies in initiating and enhancing collaboration to overcome silo-mentality.

A DVD is available with link and password. Teaching Plan and slides are available. The four learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided as well as linking them to relevant literature.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This case provides insights about the importance of market research, market segmentation, distribution, product positioning, branding and advertising for a small but growing enterprise. This case provides insights into nuances about organizing and running a family-owned small business –Bhuira Jams has to objectively decide on its way-forward which can be a pure social enterprise or a pure commercial enterprise. This case provides understanding regarding the differences between the two models in terms of funding, accounting, legal, marketing and operational aspects.

In January 2017, Linnet Mushran had just won an award from the PHD Chamber of Commerce for her work in generating local employment for rural women in the village Bhuira, Himachal Pradesh, India. This award did make her feel happy. However, more than happiness, it got her thinking as to how would Bhuira Jams – the child born out of her passion for mountains and out of the desire to do something good survive in the coming years? Bhuira Jams was never designed like a formal business. Being a family run socially relevant business, Bhuira Jams faces the challenge of operational efficiency, along with an uphill task in marketing and distribution. Almost 35 per cent of its sales comes from Fabindia, which re-sells the Bhuira products under the Fabindia label. Thus, currently there is very little focus and expenditure in Bhuira on marketing and distribution. Another challenge faced by Bhuira Jams is driven by the health and lifestyle changes occurring in the Indian society. Consumer preferences are shifting towards low fat diets, and there is growing Americanization of the Indian society. This can be a double whammy for Bhuira’s main product line of preserves, which are high on calorie and are traditionally British.

Bhuira Jams conceptually is close to a family owned business due to the involvement of husband, daughter-in-law and son-in-law of Linnet. Thus, this case provides insights into nuances about organizing and running a family owned small business.

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