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Nina, a 30-year old Asian Indian female, joined Morris University in the fall 2006 semester after completing her doctorate. She was an instructor and course designer at this historical black institution in a rural town in the southern part of the US. Ninety percent of the students and staff of Morris University (MU) were African-American. MU was committed to the objective of educating African-American youth and the concept of “students first” was one of its core institutional values. Nina's experience teaching an organizational learning course was very unpleasant. Her student evaluations were poor with harsh comments about her and the course. Nina was asked by the department head to prepare a teaching improvement plan for herself.

At the end of this case study, students should be able to identify issues relating to the external and internal environment of a business; explain how traditional marketing differ to social media marketing strategy and how digital marketing could be applied for frozen food company, identify alternatives to address the production capacity issue and challenges of contract manufacturing; identify and discuss measures that a company could adopt to effectively manage the working capital; apply various business management tools, concepts and theories in different decision-making settings – tools or concepts such as Porter’s five forces, SWOT analysis, PESTEL; and use analytical and logical skills through problem solving.

This case presents Khir, CEO of Mamart Food, facing several challenges in the post Covid-19 pandemic. Mamart Food is a SME manufacturing company located in Peninsular Malaysia. It competes in a frozen food industry. The case highlights the turbulence which Khir had to face due to the production capacity issue. He had the dilemma of balancing between the opportunity to boost sales and the capacity to meet demand. The dilemma emerged during the Movement Control Order in place and was expected to continue in the post MCO period. Quite a number of frustrated stockists over the unmet demand have started to aggressively voice out their dissatisfaction. Seeing the growing number of complaints, Khir had to act fast. Being the CEO, Khir must resolve the tension between Suliana, the production manager and Hisham, the sales and marketing manager. Failing which, it could be detrimental to the survival of Mamart Food. The most effective strategy for Mamart Food therefore needs to be formulated immediately.

This case is designed mainly for final year students in Accounting or Business undergraduate programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Management scholars and researchers have long been concerned about the impact and relevance of their work. Here we chronicle the teaching, research, management, and personal leadership development lessons that have arisen from a collaborative, decade-long relationship between three management faculty members and the senior management team of a major Norwegian-based global shipping and logistics company. This relationship grew from the creation of a teaching case in 1997 to many years of productive and meaningful work together, including the development and delivery of the all-conference Plenary Session at the 2006 Eastern Academy of Management Meeting, held concurrently with the annual CASE Association Conference. At the 2006 Plenary Session, each of the authors expressed powerful personal and professional development through their collaboration over the years, which is summarized in this article. Reflections, lessons and future research directions are provided.

Upon completion of the case study, students should be able to understand how changes in a macro environment affect the competitive landscape in an emerging market; acquire a granular understanding about the logistics industry in an emerging market and the various business models developed to service customer needs; determine the attractiveness and challenges of doing business in a fragmented but sunrise industry in an emerging market; and identify the drivers for growth and profitability in the logistics business.

Manisha Sharaf (she/her) and her co-founders conceived the idea of Truck Hall in 2011 to ride with the tide created by booming public investments in the infrastructure and transportation sector. Truck Hall aimed to improve the efficiency of the logistics industry in India by extensively using technology. However, the market research showed that technology-driven services in logistics faced many challenges owing to low internet penetration in the country, weak network connectivity during transportation and the low literacy rates of the truck drivers who were central to this industry. Between 2015 and 2018, Truck Hall experimented with several business models including load board, brokerage and integrated transporter with the sole purpose of achieving profitable growth in a highly fragmented industry with razor-thin margins. This case documented the dilemma faced by a startup in a high-growth but largely unorganized and unregulated industry in a developing economy. Should Truck Hall continue with the current business model of being a niche player or should it vertically integrate and control major segments of the value chain? Should it compromise on growth to become profitable or first scale up?

This case study can be used at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

1. Maria Jarlstrom, Essi Saru, and Sinikka Vanhala, “Sustainable Human Resource Management With Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 152, (2008): 703–724. 2. Benjamin A. Neville, Simon J. Bell, and Gregory J., “Stakeholder Salience Revisited: Refining, Redefining, and Refueling an Underdeveloped Conceptual Tool,” Journal of Business Ethics, 102, (2011): 357–378. 3. Mick Marchington, Fang Lee Cooke, and Gail Hebson. “Human Resource Management Across Organizational Boundaries,” Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management, (2009): 460–477.

This secondary source case is based mainly on three documents: the 20-page report by a labor union, Unite Here, titled “One Job Should Be Enough: Inequality at Starbucks”; and two reports by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and Covington & Burlington, LLP.

In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first-ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer.

The case is best suited for a graduate or undergraduate course in human resource management or labor relations. As diversity is typically covered in the first third of such courses, the ideal placement of this case would be in the early part of the course. As Starbucks is a well-known name, and it is very likely that students have had their own experience with Starbucks, as either a customer or an employee, the case is likely to draw their interest.

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

In October 2004, Mr. Richard Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, evaluated the potential purchase of The Robert Mondavi Corporation. Sands felt that Mondavi's wine beverage products would fit into the Constellation portfolio of alcohol beverage brands, and the opportunity to purchase Mondavi for a highly favorable price was quite possible due to recent management turmoil at that company. However, should it be purchased, strategic and operational changes would be necessary in order to fully achieve Mondavi's potential value. In making a decision, students need to consider the attractiveness of the wine industry, its changing structure, its share of the overall market for beverages, and rival firms' strategies. As rival bidders may emerge for Mondavi's brands, Constellation must offer a price that demonstrates its serious intent to acquire Mondavi.

Technology projects are inherently risky; research shows that large IT projects succeed as originally planned only 28 percent of the time. Building flexibility, or real options, into a project can help manage this risk. Furthermore, the management flexibility of options has value, as the downside risk is reduced and the upside is increased. The case is based upon real options analysis for an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and analytic customer relationship management (CRM) program at a major U.S. firm. The firm has been disguised as Global Airlines for confidentiality reasons. The data mart consolidation or EDW marginally meets the hurdle rate for the firm as analyzed using a traditional net present value (NPV) analysis. However, different tactical deployment strategies help mitigate the risk of the project by building options into the project, and the traditional NPV is expanded by the real option value. Students analyze the different deployment strategies using a binomial model compound option Excel macro, and calculate the volatility using Monte Carlo analysis in Excel. A step-by-step tutorial is provided to teach students how to accomplish the real options analysis for a simplified project, and this tutorial is easily generalized by students to the case scenario. In addition to the tactical options, the case also has the strategic growth option of analytic CRM. Students must therefore analyze both the tactical and strategic growth options and make a management recommendation on funding the project and also recommend an optimal deployment strategy to manage the project risk.

The case teaches real options for technology projects. Students learn how to calculate real option values, where the key input of volatility is obtained by Monte Carlo analysis in Excel. Students also learn that the real option value is “real,” resulting from active management mitigating the risk of the project and improving the upside. Most important, students understand the difference between tactical vs. strategic growth options and the important management issues to consider.

Hasn’t everyone at some point felt as if the universe was conspiring against his or her success? This case narrative tracks the story of Emmett Taylor, an operations manager for a bottling company, as a snow and ice storm bears down on his southeastern U.S. plant. Taylor is already plagued by stress caused by all facets of his life-family, work, and personal health-and this storm is no exception. The story offers an opportunity to discuss time, energy, and priority management; individual behavior from a type-A personality; work-life balance; organizational behavior; and leadership. This case is a suitable substitution for the classic best-selling Darden case “John Wolford” (UVA-OB-0167).

The primary topics, in this case, align well with social processes relative to communication and decision-making, and with individual processes relative to fairness in the workplace.

The case was developed from secondary sources. The secondary sources included news reports, and university sources (i.e. e-mails, announcements, reports, town hall meetings). This descriptive case has been classroom tested in an undergraduate organizational behavior course.

On September 10, 2020, the president of Bowie State University, Dr Aminta H. Breaux, announced that the university needed to “take a number of steps, including a temporary salary reduction plan, to close the FY21 funding gap and position the university for continued budget challenges” (Exhibit 1) triggered by the economic impact of COVID-19 on the state of Maryland. Some of the faculty members’ reactions to this announcement included shock and disappointment. Reflecting on what led to the state appropriation reductions, why would faculty members be shocked by President Breaux’s announcement of temporary salary reductions? Did President Breaux make the right decision, and was it communicated appropriately?

This descriptive case is most appropriate for undergraduate level organizational behavior courses.