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Business ethics, entrepreneurship, ICT.

Undergraduate, MBA, MSIT.

The dilemma could be described something like: “I want to do an honest business in order to alleviate somewhat the financial difficulty of my family […] yet my pursuit impacts negatively on my immediate customers”. This is a case of the morality of actions with indirect effects (non-intentional effects).

Understand actions with double effects, formulate business policy to regulate access to services, appreciate the challenges of starting a business enterprise, understand the social impact of ICT.

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This case traces Under Armour from its founding in 1996 through 2008 when the company entered the hyper-competitive non-cleated athletic footwear market. In 1996, with an innovative product and locker room access to college and pro players, Kevin Plank started Under Armour. He turned a struggling t-shirt company into a dominant player capturing 75% of the performance apparel market. In 2006, Under Armour successfully entered the athletic footwear market with a line of football cleats. Under Armour was the first company to disrupt Nike's dominance of the football cleat market by gaining 25% of the market within a year of introduction. In 2008, Under Armour entered the non-cleated athletic footwear market with a cross-trainer sneaker line and a $4.4 million Super Bowl ad. Unlike prior introductions, Nike responded aggressively to Under Armour's move into sneakers. Despite increased sales, Under Armour's costs increased, and profits and stock price decreased. The case concludes by asking students to evaluate Under Armour's next move. An extensive exhibit provides an overview of the athletic footwear industry in 2008.

Over the last two decades, Under Armour (UA) has emerged from being the “underdog” in the sports apparel and footwear industry to being a leader in the industry, with a fierce attention to performance and great skill at picking up-and-coming athletes who emerge as superstars. This case underscores its administrative heritage, competitive strategy, and growth potential as a global player in a highly competitive industry. It addresses the tension between being a performance brand while launching lines for women vs technology applications and conflicts between its growth strategy and macro-economic forces. It highlights areas in which it has succeeded against macro-economic forces and where it has not.

The research relies primarily on secondary sources and countless studies of UA and its major competitors. Primary research is based on databases, videos of UA’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Plank, and articles from Bloomberg to The Baltimore Sun (UA’s headquarters) on the history, growth and future of UA. It also includes observations and site visits to one of its signature brand house stores as well as intensive research and directed studies with students in the USA and China.

The case can be applied to undergraduate, graduate or executive business classes in: business policy and strategy; general management; (sports) marketing; leadership or organisational behaviour classes.

As founders of First Interstate BancSystem, which held $8.6 billion in assets and had recently become a public company, and Padlock Ranch, which had over 11,000 head of cattle, the Scott family had to think carefully about business and family governance. Now entering its fifth generation, the family had over 80 shareholders across the US. In early 2016, the nine-member Scott Family Council (FC) and other family and business leaders considered the effectiveness of the Family Governance Leadership Development Initiative launched two years earlier. The initiative's aim was to ensure a pipeline of capable family leaders for the business boards, two foundation boards, and FC.

Seven family members had self-nominated for governance roles in mid-2015. As part of the development initiative, each was undergoing a leadership development process that included rigorous assessment and creation of a comprehensive development plan. As the nominees made their way through the process and other family members considered nominating themselves for future development, questions remained around several interrelated areas, including how to foster family engagement with governance roles while guarding against damaging competition among members; how to manage possible conflicts of interest around dual employee and governance roles; and how to extend the development process to governance for the foundations and FC. The FC considered how best to answer these and other questions, and whether the answers indicated the need to modify the fledgling initiative.

This case illustrates the challenges multigenerational family-owned enterprises face in developing governance leaders within the family. It serves as a good example of governance for a large group of cousins within a multienterprise portfolio. Students can learn and apply insights from this valuable illustration of family values, vision, and mission statement.

Kevin McRider, the COO of a fledging research facility, needed to foster an environment where scientists explored the boundaries of the metals, chemicals, polymers and tools used to create innovating medical devices. The freshly-minted PhDs he hired were enthusiastic to design and conduct research projects that bridged their scientific disciplines, in a collaborative workplace, with time allocated to individual projects as well. Effectively managed, their research would help the parent corporation leapfrog over existing or near-future technology.

The problem for McRider was how to get Lintell to realize his vision of a collaborative organizational culture that promoted revolutionary scientific discoveries. His challenges included managerial behaviors that prohibited critical interaction and information sharing, as well as disruptive organizational dynamics he himself had set in motion including pressures to focus only on certain research goals and projects at the expense of creative exploration, and the violation of the psychological contracts McRider himself had created with the scientists during recruitment.

Microsoft Office was facing an uphill task in engaging the undergraduate student community. Attracting this audience—the most tech-savvy generation ever—was critical to the future of the Microsoft Office franchise. Microsoft's past advertising efforts to reach this audience had proven lackluster, while its key competitors were gradually entrenching themselves among this demographic. Microsoft's challenge was to determine the best tactics that could successfully connect with this audience. The (A) case describes Microsoft's dilemma and briefly addresses what college students mostly care about: managing homework, creating great-looking schoolwork, preparing for the workplace, and collaborating with friends and classmates. It also provides competitive information, chiefly Google's increasing presence in universities and its focus on the higher education market and the growing influence of Facebook among students and its evolution into a productivity tool. The (B) case describes the qualitative research tools that Microsoft used to get a better understanding of college students: day diaries using Twitter, technology diaries using the Internet and smartphones, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with students. The case helps students understand the value of ethnographic and qualitative research techniques, draw inferences from the data, and subsequently make recommendations. It illustrates how ethnographic and observational studies enrich research by generating deeper consumer insight than traditional methods.

Students will learn: - How online tools in ethnographic and observational research offer new insights not revealed by traditional survey research - How different qualitative market tools are used to collect data, as well as the pros and cons of different ethnographic research techniques - To interpret and synthesize data from qualitative and ethnographic research - How research can influence a firm's marketing and advertising tactics

Students after reading the case will learn about the issues and challenges of expansion in emerging markets. Global expansion versus multinational expansion. Stardardization versus localization. Socio-cultural aspects in international marketing. Leadership succession in multinational companies.

The case is about Starbucks’ journey of global expansion. It focuses on challenges in emerging markets. It also talks about the challenges to new CEO Kevin Johnson post stepping down of iconic leader Howard Schultz.

MBA Executive MBA Specialisation in Strategy, International Marketing.

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CSS 5: International Business.

Marketing, brand management, promotion management and corporate social responsibility.

Undergraduate and postgraduate.

How does the “country-of-origin” issue affect brands, and what do brands need to do? The case of unique and small corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and their impact on creating brand awareness.

Aamer Khan, Managing Director Hafet Electrical LLC, the sole distributor for of Haier in United Arab Emirates (UAE) was reviewing their half yearly results. Among the more unconventional strategies they had adopted was one where they used community engagement to get an insight into the local market and develop brand awareness as a caring top quality brand. The CEO of Haier, Zhang Ruimin stressed that “quality is and will remain the essence of business sustainable, whether in the past, present or future”. Aamer was evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy and considering its impact. Should he use a similar strategy next year?

This case deals with the “country-of-origin” issue, an important aspect in branding a key strategy of marketing. The Haier brand and its country-of-origin were investigated among the Emirati (UAE nationals) consumers. This was done as part of a capstone research project by Meerah, Sara and Azza at Zayed University, Dubai. Further, the group created a unique CSR program for the Haier, whereby they invited people to join them in a Walkathon to raise money for a charitable cause. Haier donated various products like refrigerators, air coolers and air conditioners towards this charity. By creating this event, the group raised awareness of the Haier brand among the local population.

What is:

• “Country of origin” (coo) in marketing and its effect on brands?

• The role of CSR in corporate marketing communication?

• The role of small events in building brands?

“Country of origin” (coo) in marketing and its effect on brands?

The role of CSR in corporate marketing communication?

The role of small events in building brands?

Teaching notes.

The learning objectives of using this case are as follows: to understand the concepts of organizational structure, organizational culture and organizational change; to expose students to the problems that may encounter organization when it intends to bring changes in culture; to stimulate students’ understanding of the necessity to build positive organizational culture; to advance students’ knowledge about oil and gas industry; to develop students’ understanding of using Levin’s model of cultural change; and to illustrate the challenges that an organization might face while changing its existing culture.

This case teaches about the importance of boosting positive organization culture to accept organizational change. Stardust was established in 2013 as Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd’s subsidiary. The company was established to manage small and marginal field in Malaysia which was under the oil and gas field that had smaller reservoir and lasted for four to five years. On 2014, Stardust was given an opportunity to take over one of the fields to manage. However, during the process of handing over the facility and field from the parent to the new company, the tanker caught fire in one of its pump in the pump room. The fire resulted substantial damage to the pump room; two out of four pumps were totally damaged. It delayed the oil production for more than a month. Total estimated damage due to the fire incurred RM19m losses. Direct cost included replacing two new 400 kW pumps, repairing the damaged pump room with new manifolds and painting, and cost of shutdown production for 40 days. Investigation was initiated to identify the causes of the fire which revealed that human error, mostly peoples’ negligence was one of the major reasons along with location, equipment and procedure. The Health, Safety and Environment department of the company was given the task to create ‘Living Safety’ culture among the crew. Being the head of this department, Tarmizi found it very challenging to inculcate the culture ‘Action Today, Perfect Day Tomorrow’ and was thinking how to instill this culture with zero failure by the end of the calendar year which is December 2016. The time was running fast as the parent company emphasized to handle the situation urgently and to ensure that the similar incident will not happen in the future. If it re-occurs, it will jeopardize the trustworthiness of Stardust with the other parties involved and also the parent company might not allow the company to operate other facilities, which will put the company at stake to remain competitive in the oil and gas business.

This case is suitable to use in advanced undergraduate level, MBA and MSc to teach organizational behavior and organizational theory courses.

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 7: Management Science.