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Hewlett-Packard (HP) had a long history of engaging in corporate citizenship, dating back to its founding. By 2009, however, under the leadership of its latest CEO, Mark Hurd, the company had lost its focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Hurd instead focused on undertaking a financial turnaround and overcoming other reputational challenges; he viewed CSR and philanthropic efforts as costs rather than as strategic levers. He instituted widespread cost-cutting measures to get HP back on track, including reducing CSR expenditure. The HP board, however, did not want to let CSR go by the wayside; in fact, it wanted HP to reorganize and restrategize its approach to corporate citizenship.

The case focuses on this strategic transformation from traditional, cost-center CSR to business-aligned social innovation. It outlines the details of the board's approval of the new strategy, and then discusses how HP employees worked to reorganize their CSR activity. The new team, the Office of Global Social Innovation (OGSI), had to devise a pilot project to demonstrate the new approach. The project under consideration was an engagement that would improve the early infant diagnosis process for testing infants for HIV in Kenya—an area virtually unknown to HP. The case asks students to assess the work of the OGSI team thus far, and to put themselves in the shoes of one team member who had to justify the project to HP's leadership.

The case is especially important for demonstrating the most recent shifts across some leading companies regarding how they position CSR, as well as how for-profit leaders can structure partnerships for impact.

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to: understand current shifts from traditional corporate social responsibility work to social innovation; understand the challenges facing leading companies as they seek to do well (enhance the company's bottom-line performance) by doing good (making social impact); identify best practices for developing partnerships for impact; articulate a project's social impact and how it aligns with a desirable business impact.

It is recommended that students apply the arguments of resource-based theory to analyze the potential strategic partnership that the case focuses on. The resource-based view suggests that strategic partnerships between firms have the potential to create value when resources are pooled together. Scott Crump faces a decision-making situation wherein he analyses the value-creation potential of the original equipment manufacturer partnership with Hewlett-Packard (HP). In addition, contrasting the cultural environments within both organizations would bring in greater complexity and depth to the reflections, analyses and discussions. Often research experts explore these concepts in isolated streams of research. However, in real-world scenarios, these aspects must be integrated for a more comprehensive decision making to take place. It is also recommended for students to analyze how founder characteristics and resources imprint organizations with certain enduring “imprints” that determine strategic outcomes for the firm in unique ways.

For the development of this case, the authors interviewed the top management at Stratasys including Scott Crump, Founder and CEO. The authors also interviewed former and current employees of Stratasys, HP, other experts in the printing industry and existing customers in the 3D printing industry. The company made internal documents available to the authors including financial statements, internal meeting presentations, company forecasts and assessment tools. All interviews were recorded and analyzed to obtain and include multiple perspectives from various stakeholders. The authors also conducted extensive online research on the 3D printing industry and utilized data from news articles, interviews and other relevant press materials.

Scott Crump, Founder of Stratasys, a company that developed and sold 3D printers, had always envisioned a future when it would be commonplace for a 3D printer to be on the desk of every engineer. HP approached him with a proposal that had the potential to make that dream come true. Crump knew that Stratasys did not need to partner with HP for a financial reason, but he loved the idea of the technology becoming a standard method for creating parts universally. The case highlights a true-life account of a firm’s founder considering an important strategic alliance and analyzing the ramifications of taking on or refusing this partnership.

This case has applications in strategic management and small business management courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. It also contains critical areas of decision making relevant to an advanced strategic management course that focuses on manufacturing strategy or strategic alliance decision making. This case would be relevant to MBA, Executive MBA or Masters of Science in Accountancy level students as well. Specifically, it is intended for use in courses involving topics such as mergers and strategic partnerships, negotiation and leadership, risk analysis, financial statement analysis, financial modeling and market analysis.

The case presents the efforts of Dr. Dhanesh Jain, founder of Ratna Sagar Publications to innovate in children's publishing space. His innovations received mixed response. Commercial success was delayed. Adoption of innovations by the educational institutions did not happen as expected, the innovations, however, created opportunities for other business ventures. Dr. Jain is wondering whether the innovation efforts were worth their while.

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.

Marketing strategy.

The course is well suited for MBA and Executive MBA class on Strategic Management, Marketing Strategy, Brand Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change in emerging economies. The case can also be taught to senior undergraduate students to explore the issues mentioned in the case as an integrative case for courses like Strategic Management and Marketing Strategy.

Niyogi Books had positioned itself as an independent publishing house with a focus on the niche area of trade books. Due to the internet, digitalization and globalization the dynamics of the book publishing industry had changed considerably, and the company needed to think and reflect on its current position and future strategy. Niyogi Books had added new products and new markets along with other innovations to succeed in the business of publishing. But the way ahead for Niyogi Books was to innovate in light of fast-paced technological advancement. The company needed to balance the digitization of content as well as retailing with its existing print strategy. A related issue is the need to plan an innovative and cost-effective communication strategy to boost sales.

The learning outcomes are as follows: analyze the business environment of the publishing industry, realize the need for a branding strategy for small business and apply communication strategies single/multi-channel setting, understand the need of an organization to purposefully adapt an organization’s (self-) resource base (management capability to effectively coordinate and redeploy internal and external competences) and analyze the role of a growth strategy and how it can be used to devise a product/marketing strategy.

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.

Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management.

This case is intended for teaching entrepreneurship and strategic management courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

This is a field-researched real case about a growing food business started by local entrepreneurs in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Slices, a UAE-based organic food pioneer company is becoming popular in the UAE nowadays. The company was poised for growth as demand was exceeding all expectations. There were many challenges Slices had to face: increasing demand and brand awareness of Western Fast Food Giants; and what future skills Slices needed to develop to meet the regional and global challenges. Slices specializes in organic food, and they came up with different varieties in their menu every day. This, in turn, expanded the outlet greatly and they gained high revenues in a short period of time. Based on resource-based theory, Slices entrepreneurs have developed their business which is unique in terms of food with a flare of community service that involves offering healthy food to the customers and also a philanthropic attitude toward the poor. Slices is novel not only because they have more or better resources but also because of their distinctive competences (unique healthy food, community service and philanthropic attitude). Slices adopted a simple concept in which they sell their healthy food in a healthy atmosphere with delicious recipes that appeal to many different nationalities. But the challenges and hurdles are many which the company has to think of if they want to sustain in the long run. Faisal, Khalid, Hamad and Amina are wondering what their next step ought to be in light of the stiff competition. Do they have the dynamic capability to strategize? Do they have enough resources to expand locally and internationally? If yes, where and how? This case will enable the students to critically think in various facets and reach a decision based on the facts provided.

The case will help the students identify and evaluate the entrepreneurial strategy adopted by the company for start-up and future growth. This will also enable the students to critically think in various facets and reach a decision based on the facts provided.

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

Upon completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand brand differentiation and marketing challenges faced by small businesses in emerging markets; recognize the significance of marketing strategies for a growing business in emerging markets; assimilate paid, owned and earned media to improvise the effectiveness of firm’s communication and digital marketing strategy; analyze the relevance of social media marketing in developing a brand; and create a content marketing strategy.

The case dilemma involved a possible course of action that Fusion Creations faced at the beginning of 2022 about marketing strategies across paid, earned and owned media. “Fusion Creations” was the creation of two sisters who were avid cake bakers since young age. They identified the demand for homemade cakes and the growing number of home bakers in India. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that they faced challenges in terms of lockdown and scarcity of supply for baking essentials. Moreover, although the pandemic had brought most sections of the society worldwide to a standstill, home bakers were thriving. After the pandemic, these home bakers turned their passion into full-time profession. It was time for the sisters to view this stage as a challenge because of competition from aspiring entrepreneurs and rising home bakers, and convert it into an opportunity. Can Fusion Creation leverage the online social media platforms for their product sales and marketing? With presence established on various social media platforms, were they doing it right, or was there a better way? A few questions lay in front of Chaitali and Kena, owners and bakers of Fusion Creations.

This case is written for use in digital and social media marketing classes for graduation-level courses. The focus of the case aligns well with discussions of digital and social media marketing strategy. The case also has application in discussions regarding implementation of digital marketing strategy. Instructors that choose to emphasize social media strategies could assign this case to explore online marketing and digital communication.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: Students will be able to comprehend and visualize the initial hiccups and operational hurdles faced by digital start-ups in an emerging market. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of digital marketing for promoting start-ups dealing with sustainable products in the service industry, thereby helping them to develop digital marketing strategies to organically promote a service. Students will be able to perform strategic positioning of a start-up based on perceptual mapping methodology. Students will be able to identify the various aspects for identifying and creating a viable business model. Students will be able to use Osterwalder’s business model canvas for identifying the important operational aspects of the start-up. Students will be able to visualize the entrepreneurial challenges in an emerging market.

This case study highlights the dilemma the protagonist, Prerna Prasad, faced in her travel start-up venture, Ecoplore. Ecoplore is an aggregator platform that onboards only eco-hotels. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Ecoplore is India’s only platform that promotes and onboards only those hotels made up of mud, wood, bamboo, stone or any local architecture and that maintain at least 30% green space on their premises. Ecoplore has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Program for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 12 and has also been bestowed with the Gold Award by Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2019. Prasad had already identified her target market. Prasad took conscious steps towards reaching her target audience, and her first step towards that was designing Ecoplore’s website. Being aware of the importance of content marketing, Ecoplore’s content was curated with fresh and quality write-ups, pictures, blog posts, etc. Ecoplore’s website was also optimized for mobile and desktop versions to deliver a great user experience. Features like easy navigation and the website's speed were also taken care of. Being active on social media platforms, Prasad made sure that the pages of Ecoplore across various social media platforms were well connected with her website. Despite doing so much, it was found that the number of visitors was few after a span of two years. Conversion on the website was low, which ultimately affected the return on investment. Prasad was befuddled as to why the conversions were low despite having a great website that was considered a window to the organization. She faced the challenge of reaching her target audience despite being present online. Upon detailed analysis, Prasad found that Ecoplore was showing up in the search engine research pages (SERP) in only a few keywords, meaning the keyword density was low. Also, the website lacked backlinks, which would eventually help them to rank high on search engine optimization (SEO). This means that Ecoplore will need to revisit its SEO strategy if Prasad wants to promote her organization organically. Now, to increase visibility and ranking on SERP, Prasad had two options before her; first, she could do it organically via SEO or through search engine marketing. She was keen to build the traffic organically, knowing its long-term benefits. As a marketer, what should be Prasad’s strategy? This case study can be used for class discussion purposes for the students pursuing the courses on digital marketing, SEO and digital marketing optimization.

This case study is suitable for students learning the fundamentals of digital marketing (basic and advanced) course, marketing management students and digital marketing workshops. The level of difficulty is medium. The knowledge pre-requirement is marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Services Marketing: People Technology Strategy (Eighth Edition) By Pearson, Authored by Wirtz Jochen, Lovelock Christopher, Chatterjee Jayanta, 2017; Service-Marketing: Text and Cases (Second Edition) By Pearson, Authored by Harsh Verma, 2011.

Students will gain an understanding of business models, which has a positive impact on the environment.

This case study intends to help learners understand the concept of segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) in the case of services. The idea of services is different from that of a product as in services; intangible elements dominate the value creation. By exploring the practical scenarios faced by the protagonist, in this case, readers would enhance their problem-solving abilities in similar situations.

Prerna is the founder of Ecoplore, an aggregator cum booking platform for eco-hotels. It onboards hotels only if they are made up of vernacular architecture and maintains at least 33% of greenery on its premises. Listed properties also harvested rainwater, used renewable source of energy, used sustainable options instead of single use plastic, composted organic waste. Most of these properties grow vegetables, fruits and herbs, and the visitors enjoy homemade organic meals. Ecoplore is the only aggregator platform to visit and verify these eco-hotels directly. Ecoplore is an early-stage startup; all customer queries were handled by Prerna, on-call or through a chat box. It included interacting with prospective clients, understanding their requirements, suggesting the most suited options and booking the eco-hotels. Prerna had to spend most of the time interacting with clients. Over time, she comprehended that only a few prospective clients became Ecoplore’s customers, and the conversion rate was low of owing to various reasons like ticket size, clients' age and psychology.

For students: This case is aptly designed for marketing students pursuing Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration courses to understand and apply STP theory and service marketing concepts.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

1. Analyze the concept of disruptive change and its impact on organizational learning and development; 2. Develop the ability to identify and implement effective behavioral training interventions; 3. Understand the learning and development process; 4. Evaluate the challenges associated with online learning and explore strategies to overcome them; and 5. Recognize the significance of online learning in the current era and acquire knowledge and skills using online tools and applications for different job roles.

This case focuses on the new challenges that Shazia Zaheer, who is Head of the Learning and Development Department, is experiencing as a consequences of COVID-19 in her department. As her learning and development department has been focused primarily on traditional learning modes since the inception of Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL), she is facing additional challenges in adopting online learning because PTCL has undergone significant structural change. Since 1947, PTCL has been a state-owned enterprise. In 2005, the Pakistan Government privatized PTCL. This privatization resulted in numerous structural changes in management, hierarchy, chain of command, pay structure, product lines, technology and other factors. Employees were reduced from 90,000 to 23,000 as part of a volunteer separation plan, and a new scheme was introduced to streamline the process and improve efficiency. However, the employees at PTCL reacted to this transformation with union strikes and behavioral changes. Hence, this became a daunting challenge for Shazia Zaheer to change employees’ mindsets and instill corporate culture values. Nonetheless, she successfully won the half battle by changing the mindset of employees, and then she faced another challenge, COVID-19. This new normal brought new challenges for Shazia to implement online learning as her department relies solely on traditional modes of learning (classroom-based learning).

This case will be a good teaching aid if included in any courses on “Training and Development,” “Human Resource Management,” “Change Management” and “Online Learning” It would be better at the undergraduate (specialization courses) or graduate level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.