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The learning outcomes are as follows: learning about the concept of informal innovation in comparison with the formal innovations; understanding the drivers and barriers of informal innovation in an organisation; identifying the enablers of informal innovation in an organisation; and analysing the outcomes of informal innovation in non-monetary/non-financial/non-pecuniary terms.

The case study emphasises the importance of informal innovations in the manufacturing industry. The case is an attempt by the authors to bring about a clear distinction between the formal and informal open innovations.

The teaching case can be used for undergraduate- and post-graduate-level courses such as BBA, MBA and executive MBA.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Human resource management and leadership development.

MBA course on Human Resource Management.

This case present the talent management practice at Steelcase. It highlights the approach taken by the company in managing its high performers. The approach taken by Steelcase links leadership development with performance management and succession planning. It also describes the distinct characteristics that make the approach taken by Steelcase different from other companies that implement talent management. This case presents policy options that companies can consider in developing a talent management program.

Understand and describe the interconnection between various talent development activities. Compare and assess policy options in developing talent management programs. Analyze how Steelcase nurture a high performance culture among its employees. Describe the leadership behaviors Steelcase is seeking to develop among its leaders.

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 case illustrates the application of the prospect theory to risk-seeking investor behavior. It also provides an example that standard valuation methods such as discount cash flow), discount divided model and price multiples are not always applicable to value a stock. The students are exposed to a real situation where investors turn risk-seeking. The case offers insights into why irrational investors are attracted to risky assets and their probable socio-demographics.

This case illustrates a case when investors become risk-seeking and how the prospect theory explains the investors’ risk appetite. Energy Earth PCL is a coal importer and distributor incorporated in Thailand. Its shares had been suspended for trading before the Stock Exchange of Thailand allowed temporary trading in July 2019. A series of unfavorable events leading up to the temporary trading period suggest that the company’s financial health was severely distressed. Its book value was presumably negative and its going concern was threatened. However, investors still bought the shares with the hope of hitting the jackpot. The case presents an example of the psychological aspects of humans when investing in a stock market. With an application of the prospect theory, irrational risk-seeking behavior explains the motivation to invest in risky stocks.

Introductory finance course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 1 Accounting and Finance.

The case integrates frameworks on business models, the business model canvas (BMC) and Porter’s generic strategies in the context of the coffee industry in China. The case enables students to construct a Business Model Canvas for competing companies, analyze the canvas to deduce the generic strategy they are pursuing, and formulate recommendations based on this analysis.

The case is derived from secondary sources, including publicly available reports and information about Starbucks and Luckin.

This case looks at Starbucks in China as it faces a fierce Chinese competitor and evolving consumer behavior. Luckin, a Chinese coffee store company, had seen explosive growth since its inception in Beijing in 2017. By late 2019, its number of brick-and-mortar locations surpassed the number of Starbucks’ coffee stores in China, which had entered the Chinese market two decades earlier in 1999. Luckin’s focused on convenience through leveraging technology and reducing costs by limiting physical stores. Although Luckin’s fortunes turned in March of 2020, after an accounting scandal came to light, Luckin’s success suggests that consumers were attracted to its positioning as a “fast coffee pickup and delivery” provider. The case describes Starbucks’ strategy in China, which it sees as an important long-term growth market. It also describes the strategic activities of fast-growing, Chinese coffee company Luckin and discusses Chinese culture and consumer behavior.

The case is written for undergraduate students enrolled in a business strategy or corporate entrepreneurship course. Given that the case centers on China, it could also be used in international entrepreneurship/business courses.

The case study is based on field research and also on secondary data. A primary survey is included in the case study. Simple frequency and factor analysis as statistical tools have been used.

Family businesses, like that of Kiran Rai’s, owning a local Mom and Pop store in an emerging city were faced with a serious problem of sustaining their businesses. These family businesses countered immense competition from: their own types, i.e. from other local Mom and Pop stores within the same cities; online stores; and the organised stores.The choice of the customers to buy goods from the neighbourhood shops has remained largely as an age-old tradition in the households. With the millennials and the Generation Z (Gen Z) exposed to an array of brands, can they become the first choice of young customers for shopping for all kinds of products and varieties? Can the local Mom and Pop stores spread their wings across the young generations, particularly the Millennials and Gen Z through inexpensive social media channels? What are their growth options? How can the social media serve this purpose? The case uses the social cognition theory and the use gratification theory to throw light on the new concept of Social Shopping.

The case is meant to be discussed in courses like Fundamentals of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Retail Marketing in a 90-min session in the Post Graduate as well as in the Working Executives’ Management programmes. The case analysis will expose the students to the use of social media and its benefits to the small businesses. The students will also be able to analyse and understand the different types of Online Consumers’ Shopping Personalities. This would enable them to strategize for different stages in the decision-making processes.

Choice Behavior.

The case study deals with cross-gender analysis of impulse buying behavior in apparel shopping in India. Any extrapolation of this study to other markets should take into account that Indian consumers are price sensitive. The buying behavior in apparel shopping may not be directly related to other retail categories such as ready-to-eat food, consumer electronics, etc.

Mr Khuswant Chaddha’s family business is in tatters. Market dynamics have changed over the years and his textile mill is no longer the cash cow it once was. His son, Gaurav Chaddha, a recent engineering graduate, plans to save the business by venturing into branded apparel retailing. A key component of this strategy is to figure out impulse shopping behavior in apparel purchases. The gender angle is used to better comprehend the differences in impulse buying emotions so that males and females can be targeted with greater success. A survey of shoppers belonging to suitable demographics is used as the backbone of this study. The analysis of the data presents several dilemmas in some critical business decisions.

The objectives of the case include: understanding how marketplaces change over time; realizing the fact that businesses should evolve over time and even highly profitable business models can become obsolete pretty fast; studying the factors which influence the choice of an apparel store; understanding impulse buying behavior and how gender plays a decisive role in it and analyzing post purchase behavior with respect to gender.

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 8: Marketing.

Public Sector Management.

MBA or postgraduate program courses in public policy and management. MBA or postgraduate program courses on social innovation, social entrepreneurship and public or collective entrepreneurship. Management development programs for public policy professionals, non-governmental organizations and social enterprises.

Despite several country-wide campaigns to improve sanitation levels, India continues to be the country with the highest number of people, over 600 million, practicing open defecation. This case outlines the Sabar Shouchagar Project (Toilets for Everyone) undertaken by the District Administration of Nadia District in West Bengal that transformed the region into the first open-defecation-free district in India. The case begins with providing the context of the problem of open defecation, why it has been hard to eliminate and how undertaking a project to eliminate open-defecation-free practices has myriad institutional and economic challenges. The case then details the conceptualization and execution of the complex Sabar Shouchagar Project which involved a loose coalition of various state programs and civil society organizations. The case ends with questions on the continuity of this project beyond the tenure of the current District Magistrate and on the replicability of such an ambitious project in other parts of the country. The setting of this case, a government agency, is different than most cases and provides an opportunity for students to talk about a state agency and its interstices with civil society. This case explores how to create change through large government machinery and allows the student to explore aspects of social mobilization, social change and social innovation. If taught within a postgraduate or MBA program, the case would serve well to dispel stereotypes and biases about government bureaucracies (such as slow timelines, limited efficacy of projects and so on).

After discussion and analysis of the case, students will be able to: appreciate how administrators within a large government bureaucracy address an ambitious and complex public health issue in a developing world context. Understand the on-the-ground challenges that arise when a change agent pursues a worthwhile goal. There are difficulties such as getting resources beyond what a government office has access to, getting alignments between different key actors within the local community and forging coalitions. Understand initiatives for social transformation within a developing country context. Specifically, the case unpacks the cultural, political, economic contexts that determine how social innovations may be pursued. Understand capacity-building and change management. Evaluate efforts required to sustain social change efforts and the challenges and pathways with respect to replication of successful social change projects in other geographies. Appreciate the design of civic engagement practices in public policy implementation.

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

CSS: 10: Public Sector management.

The questions raised in the case study could escort a classroom or online discussion for understanding licensed product consumption motives among the internal workforce.

Despite the Asiad (an abbreviation of Asian Games) being organized in the most populous continent, its financial profitability is minimal compared with the summer Olympic Games and other major sporting events. Thereby, Asiad board members are seeking to understand how they can target the right segment via licensed products. This will ultimately increase licensed product sales. On July 1, 2017, a board meeting was held in which the licensing product manager, Young Lee, proposed to target the internal workforce via licensed products based on 17th Asiad’s data and previous literature. Lee analyzed the attributes of licensed products sold at 17th Asiad and its psychological connection with the internal workforce. Hence, the purpose of this case study was to decipher the internal workforce feasibility as the right segment to target via licensed products for Asiad's management. The case study’s primary data was collected via IB worldwide (now Galaxia SM CO, Ltd), one of the leading sport marketing organizations in South Korea. The IB worldwide (now Galaxia SM CO, Ltd) signed an exclusive product license agreement with the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee jointly and individually with the Olympic Council of Asia to produce licensed products (e.g. Mascot dolls). This realistic case study should be understood through the lens of symbolic interactionism. Finally, this study is important to consider because the internal workforce licensed products consumption has gained little attention in sports marketing literature.

The case can be taught in marketing research and consumer behavior courses.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

After reading the case study, the students will be able to analyze the impact of post-pandemic “new normal” customer behavioral change on a start-up aggregator operating virtually. Recognize the need for the service marketing strategy to prepare a service provider/aggregator to sustain a dynamic and volatile consumer environment. Understand the importance of competitors’ analysis as a primary step of service marketing strategy in influencing “new normal” consumer behavior. Examine the utility of customer engagement through website blogs, social media posts, videos and continuously updated information on the mobile application in influencing the “new normal” customer behavior, from skinner operant conditioning behavior and Rusbolt’s investment model perspectives.

Rafeeg is a mobile application-based home maintenance service providing company, conceived and founded in 2017 by Khamis Alsheryani – who, as an Emirati entrepreneur, has a prior record of accomplishing successful mobile applications and business ventures since 2004. The unique selling proposition of Rafeeg in the Abu Dhabi market is its functioning as the home maintenance services aggregator bringing its suppliers and consumers under-one-roof alongside maintaining ensuring high quality, punctuality and security at competitive prices. Rafeeg has collaborated with approximately 1,000 licensed suppliers using nearly 5,000 technicians and maintenance workers with a customer base of about 70,000 households. Although it is formally situated in Al Salam St, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company communicates with its consumers virtually. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UAE in March 2020, Rafeeg witnessed a considerable decrease in service requests. Consumers’ psychological fear of the pandemics spread into their houses through the technicians and maintenance workers and the degree of hygienic practices the latter follows before their service provision acted as the major reason behind the fall in requests. Despite Alsheryani’s assurance on the provision of only those suppliers who are verified of their hygienic practices, negative COVID-19 test reports and their availability to the consumers as proof and regular temperature checks of the technicians, the consumer apprehensions remained stagnant and the loss of new service requests, as well as revenue, continued. The pandemic’s spread and consequent lockdown of services in the UAE affected Rafeeg’s business operations gravely, as projected by its sudden drop-in service requests – from 53,638 average monthly customer requests in January and February to approximately 10,000 in March and April. The sudden drop of 81% in new requests drove Alsheryani to develop a service marketing strategy in May to boost consumer behavior, encouraging them to resume their requests without further apprehensions. However, with the continuous rise in the pandemic and vaccines still under trial and research, Alsheryani contemplates the viability of the new marketing strategy. Alsheryani took measures in supplier training programs, excommunicating with suppliers who fail to comply with his strict safety regulations, developing the app with clearly stated, uniform, safety procedures and bearing the additional safety-related costs small suppliers provide quality work as part of the strategy. Despite so, will there be an increase in new requests? Will the bearing of additional costs on the suppliers’ behalf jeopardize its competitive advantage in UAE? Should he consider an alternate business model to adapt to the new normal environment?

This case is written for undergraduate students majoring in consumer behavior, consumer engagement approaches, digital marketing approaches using websites, mobile applications, social media communities and service marketing strategies. Students, through this case, can relate the importance of virtual space in engaging consumers and the importance of the latter in addressing the dynamicity of consumer behavior, especially affected by sudden environmental change, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The case study also subtly highlights the importance of collaboration with suppliers in an aggregator business model to capture the essence of changing consumer behavior. This case study is appropriate for students having previous knowledge of Rusbolt’s investment model and skinner’s operant behavioral model of consumer behavior and their application in service marketing. Besides, students must be aware of the online business model and aggregator businesses in the service industry of the UAE. The case study purports to motivate critical analytical thinking among students and build their understanding of the importance of consumer behavior for business sustenance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 8: Marketing.

The manager of the Sony VAIO personal computer in China has been given two segmentation studies. One study is country-specific and product-specific. The other is a global segmentation study, which covers all regions and all of Sony's many consumer electronics. Which segmentation study should the manager rely on---or is there a way to rely on both? After deciding which study is best, which consumer should the manager target, and with what position?

To provide a basis for students (with the help of their lecturer or professor) to answer the following questions: What are the general purposes of a market segmentation study, and what are some of the associated challenges? Is it better for a segmentation study to provide information about the likelihood of category purchase or the likelihood of brand purchase? What are the plusses and minuses of a global versus local segmentation study, and what are the marketing implications of each?