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After the completion of this case study, students will be able to understand the importance of being close to local people when embarking on social business; understand that clear purpose and good decision-making can lead to great outcomes; and learn that innovation is crucial to ensure sustainability of both business and impact.

The case highlights the journey of Laiterie du Berger (LDB), a social enterprise in the agribusiness industry and the challenges faced as it expands and innovates. LDB’s roots lie in its commitment to social impact, aiming to uplift the Fulani livestock farmers and address socioeconomic issues. The company’s business model prioritizes people over profits, focusing on sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The LDB case showcases the challenges and opportunities in the agribusiness industry. LDB’s commitment to social impact, demonstrated through its support for farmers and sustainable farming practices, has been integral to its success. As the company expands and innovates, it faces critical decisions that require balancing financial growth with social responsibility. By embracing development, innovation and collaboration, LDB can continue to be a catalyst for positive change in the agribusiness industry while staying true to its roots and the principles that have defined its journey.

This case study is designed for bachelor’s and master’s degree students in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as MBA students. The case focuses on social entrepreneurship with the example of an agribusiness company located in Senegal, prioritizing social impact and quality of life. The case study explores the dynamics of the sector, including expansion strategy, innovation initiatives and the dilemma of balancing social mission and profit that social entrepreneurs may be facing. By analyzing this real-world situation of LDB, students will have the opportunity to enhance their decision-making skills.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

This case requires students to evaluate alternative dual-share-class corporate structures that allow companies and entrepreneurs to pursue profit with purpose. The case explores Impact Makers, an IT consulting company based in Richmond, Virginia. While original founders of the firm hold all voting rights, the cash flow rights belong to two nonprofits setting the stage for a Newman's Own model of management consulting. The case discusses whether and how the alternative corporate structure aids the firm's overall strategy to attract top-quality employees, pay them competitive salaries, and provide superior service to its clients while donating 100% of its lifetime value to charitable causes, largely through partnerships with various nonprofit organizations. More importantly, the case asks students to evaluate how such a dual-share-class and dual-purpose company can raise capital to fund continued growth.

The case opens with CEO Michael Pirron reminding himself of all the questions he had run through to execute a strategy to further grow Impact Makers' consulting business both through expanding a menu of services and through conquering new geographical markets. To do either, or both, the company needed a cash infusion. Internal cash was limited, as up to 40% of it flowed to charitable partners, demonstrating Impact Makers' commitment to its mission. Raising debt for a company without fixed assets was challenging and time consuming. Complicating it all was that being structured as a nonstock corporation rendered equity raising difficult. Could Impact Makers raise money to grow and stay true to community values at the same time?

After completion of the case study, students are expected to demonstrate understanding of the process of strategy formulation (which include conducting situational analysis) and strategy implementation.

Perusahaan Azan, which trades under the brand name Roti Azan for its fresh bread and Azan for its dry bread or rusks, was established as a family business in 1968 by Haji Abu Bakar bin Ali in his hometown in Kuala Pilah, in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia. In the mid-1980s, the management of the business was passed on by Haji Abu Bakar to one of his sons, Haji Mohd Ghazali bin Haji Abu Bakar. Haji Ghazali was named managing director in 1985 and officially inherited his father’s company in 1987. By 2004, Perusahaan Azan breads had started to penetrate major grocery stores nationwide, and later the business began to expand internationally in 2010, with Oman and Iraq among the first countries it ventured into. The company sold both its fresh and dry bread in local stores; however, in the international market, only dry bread types were sold, specifically wholemeal rusks and long rusks, which had longer shelf lives. Post-pandemic, by 2022, the company had exited the retail fresh bread market and had focused only on its contractual fresh bread and retail dry bread markets. He thought about the main strategic choices he had of going forward, either to revive its retail fresh bread segment or venture into a coffee shop business. The former was the bread and butter of the company in the last 50 years. However, he knew that re-entering this market was getting more difficult, as it requires competing head-to-head with the giant breadmakers. There were also issues of rising costs and high wastage. For the latter coffee shop project, the company did not have experience in directly “serving” the customers, with its businesses so far had been mainly in production. He pondered on the best decision to undertake to sustain the company’s profitability into the next generation. Few family businesses can pass this crucial stage. He knew he had to act fast to ensure that the company’s plans for the future could be successfully implemented. The case study is suitable for use in teaching courses in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in the programmes of business administration, Muamalat administration and accounting.

The case study is suitable for use in advanced undergraduate students in management, business administration, Muamalat administration and postgraduate students in MBA, Master in Muamalat Administration or other related master’s programmes with a course in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case was developed from a primary source and is based on interviews and personal evaluations.

Maria was at a scheduled lunch with her direct manager, John, who inquired about the privacy leak regarding employee data she had found a few months earlier. Upon discovering the issue, Maria took on the task of ensuring the privacy leak was dealt with and resolved. John knew it was a challenging interdepartmental task because other managers did not immediately recognize the seriousness and full impact of the issue on employee privacy. Plus, the belief was that the project to combine two software programs improving CRM functionality, causing the employee data leak, needed immediate release. During the lunch, Maria stated that the privacy problem was fully eliminated and that, in the end, it did impact a lot more than only a few employees. John actively encouraged Maria in the conversation to seek feedback from Richard, the managing director directly involved and responsible for the project, which Maria had already done. When the feedback arrived, Maria felt extremely hurt by the comments and began to question the validity of the company’s values. Now, she must decide what her options are.

This case study is about dealing with feedback, career development and how to receive and provide feedback. It presents a situation that allows for a variety of ways to address negative feedback and shows that different reactions can have broader consequences for career development. At the same time, the case illustrates how feedback is given in international teams and companies, and how intercultural or gender-relevant circumstances may have to be considered.

This case study was written for use in BA and MA classes to promote discussion regarding feedback. Relevant courses in business and administration or an international business study program could be organizational behavior, communication training, conflict management, an intercultural competencies course or in line with career management sequences.

Early program BA students, BA students in advanced semesters as well as MA students with work experience are all markets for the case. It has been class-tested with BA international business students. While advanced BA and graduate students are able to and expected to enrich discussions by contributing personal stories, early program BA students benefit from learning how to create feedback and how to read feedback – including from other students, instructors and managers, to use during their first internships.

The data for this case were obtained primarily through a series of in-person interviews in Penang between the authors and Pete Browning (a pseudonym) from 2017 to early 2019. The authors also consulted secondary data sources, including publicly available material on BMax and “Company B”.

This case examines a key decision, or set of decisions, in the life of a small- to medium-sized management consultancy group, namely, whether they might expand their operations in Southeast Asia, and if so, where. These key decisions came in the wake of their having already established a very modest scale presence there, with an operating base on the island of Penang just off the north western coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The initial establishment of a Southeast Asian branch had been somewhat spontaneous in nature – a former colleague of one of the two managing partners in the USA was on the ground in Malaysia and available: he became the local partner in the firm. But the firm had now been eyeing expansion within the region, with three markets under particular consideration (Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand) and a further two (Vietnam and China) also seen as possible targets, though at a more peripheral level. The questions facing the decision makers were “was it time they expand beyond Malaysia?” and “if so, where?”

This case could be used effectively in undergraduate courses in international business. The key concepts on which the case focuses are the factors affecting market entry, particularly the choice of market and the assessment of potential attractiveness such markets offer.

This case study is related to start-up post-listing investment analysis. Through this case study, students will be able to perform the business analysis guided by the Venture Evaluation Metric tool, perform financial analysis using the discounted cash flow methods and perform investment analysis recommendation with justifications from the business and financial analysis performed above.

This case study sets out the study of a scalable start-up, Zomato, which is a successfully listed start-up firm in India. Despite the start-up development success in the pre-listing, the firm has exhibited a continuous unprofitable finance performance in the post-listing and has further experienced a volatile share price performance, both of which have puzzled existing and potential investors. In addition, some analysts are in the opinions that the firm share price valuation have been inflated with overvaluation since in the initial public offering stage and remain traded with overvaluation in the market. Notably, considering the negative indicators mentioned above, investors are concerned about long-term sustainability of the firm business and financial performance. In the context of post-listing investment, the following questions are material to investors: What is the realistic growth trajectory for Zomato in the medium term? What is Zomato’s share fair value in the medium term? Can one see opportunities or risks ahead of investing in Zomato’s shares? What will be the investment strategy for new investors?

This case study is suited to bachelor’s and master’s level in business schools studying entrepreneurial finance analysis.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

This case study provides in-depth, practical knowledge to develop business strategies for the management program. After reading this case study, the students will be able to learn about the challenges and problems that service firms face during a crisis, the drastic changes in the market environment due to a crisis and the analysis tools that can be used when analyzing the shifted market environment. By analyzing this case study, students will be trained for the decision-making that arises in the process of crisis management in the hotel industry.

Nam Nghi Resort, situated on the picturesque Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, experienced the tumultuous period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, Nam Nghi was a thriving five-star resort, deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture and renowned for its luxurious amenities and breathtaking location. However, the onset of COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to the hospitality industry, leading to a sharp decline in tourism and revenue. Despite the adversity, Nam Nghi implemented risk management practices successfully and displayed resilience and adaptability. Through rigorous cost minimization, strategic facility upgrades and targeted marketing efforts, Nam Nghi managed to navigate the crisis and gradually rebuild its business as travel restrictions eased. As the industry began to show signs of recovery, the general manager faced new challenges in restoring the resort’s prepandemic vitality. The challenge remained of understanding changing consumer values and market dynamics.

This case study can be used as class material for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. In particular, MBA students in the hospitality industry such as hotels, resorts, travel agencies and restaurants are the target audience.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

The case was developed from secondary sources and interviews with a security analyst. The secondary sources include company annual reports, news reports, analyst reports, industry reports, company websites, stock exchange websites and databases such as Bloomberg and CMIE Prowess.

Increasing competition in product and capital markets has put tremendous pressure on managers to become more cost competitive. To address their firms' uncompetitive cost structures, managers may have to consider dramatic restructuring of their businesses. During 2014–2017, Tata Steel Ltd (TSL) UK considered a series of divestitures and a merger plan to nurse the company back to health. The case considers the economics of the restructuring plan. The case is designed to help students analyze a corporate downsizing program undertaken by a large Indian company in the UK and to highlight the dynamic role of the CFO and governance issues in family firms. It introduces students to issues surrounding a typical restructuring and provides students a platform to practice the estimation of value creation in a restructuring exercise. While some cases on corporate restructuring in the context of developed economies are available, there are very few cases written in an emerging market context. This case bridges that gap. TSL presents a unique opportunity to study corporate restructuring necessitated by a failed cross-border acquisition. It illustrates the potential for value loss in large, cross-border acquisitions. It shows how managerial hubris can prompt family firm owners to overbid in acquisitions and create legacy hot spots. In addition, the case can be used to discuss the causes of governance failures such as weak institutional monitoring and poor legal enforcement in emerging markets that could potentially harm minority shareholders.

The case was developed from secondary sources and interviews with a security analyst. The secondary sources include company annual reports, news reports, analyst reports, industry reports, company websites, stock exchange websites and databases such as Bloomberg and CMIE Prowess.

The case study is based on a social entrepreneurial journey where the authors have used an interview method to get the insights from the protagonists and the employees. Rigorous interviews were conducted online and in person for deep analysis of the protagonist’s strategies and decisive dilemma.

Secondary data was collected from company’s website for facts and figures.

This case study is a story of indigenous tribes of Odisha from the eyes of a woman who, with her co-founder, empathized with their vulnerable life and took on the challenge of creating sustainable livelihoods by establishing Millet Magic Foundation. The Millet Magic Foundation was established in 2021 by Shyama and her cofounder to uplift the indigenous tribe of Mayurbhanj by providing them livelihood through millet-based products. The foundation launched their millet-based snack products with the brand name WOWMOM. Millet Magic Foundation created social impact for the tribals by providing them with employment, fair wages, health care and social well-being. The specialty of the Millet Magic was reverse positioning and focusing on the bottom of the pyramid. The success of the Millet Magic Foundation relied on its mission to uplift the life of these indigenous tribal, especially the women, by overcoming the challenges with the strategies to establish Millet Magic as a social enterprise.

The case study is primarily suitable for postgraduate programme to teach the concept of social entrepreneurship in the entrepreneurship module. The case study can also be used for highlighting the role of social enterprise in sustainable economic development of emerging economies.

This case studies the growth of OYO Hotels (OYO) to illustrate the operational processes necessary to succeed in the service sector. The case allows for a discussion of employee- and customer-management systems, tech-driven solutions, and profit drivers. The material unfolds OYO's growth and its solution for making economy hotels discoverable and bookable online.

The case raises a series of questions around OYO's business model, its ability to translate across global markets, and growth potential. It has been successfully taught in a second-year MBA class on the management of service operations.