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Reports that during the mid‐1990s, Afri‐Cola GmbH was a relatively small business in Cologne, Germany. Traces its successful launch of Afri‐Cola, an Afri‐Cola light beverage, in the newly independent republic of Macedonia, and its subsequent decision to evaluate its marketing strategy. Notes that opportunities were arising in nearby Albania; however, consensus was lacking as to what should be done next.

Debbi Fields has been baking cookies for public consumption since August 1977, when she opened the first Mrs Fields’ Chocolate Chippery in Palo Alto, California. After being coerced by her husband and her employees, she decided to follow their advice and open a second store in order to serve up more soft and chewy cookies. By 1981, there were 14 stores in the USA and the following year, Mrs Fields expanded internationally to Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Ms Lek Oon Goh is the woman entrepreneur who has the franchise licence for the Malaysian and Singaporean markets. In September 1995, she opened her first outlet in Singapore and by 1997 she had opened three more shops in the city republic. Since then, Ms Goh has begun the search for optimal locations in Malaysia where the next Mrs Fields’ Cookies will be opening soon.

The author and his colleagues at LEK Consulting LLC have helped hundreds of firms over the years to achieve higher growth, increase their profit margins in existing businesses, add scores of new services and products, and make hundreds of successful M&A transactions while using strategic market positioning principles. This article has been written by the author with the aim of making the principles better known to others after having seen these principles work for his clients.

Research conducted by the author's firm, LEK Consulting LLC, combined with experience gained from hundreds of client engagements, has shown that while average shareholder returns for most industries tend to cluster in the 0 percent to 20 percent range with amazing consistency, there can be spectacular differences among companies within almost every industry sector. A top performer in a particular sector can be 200, 300, or even 1,000 percent better than the sector's worst performer. The research and experience with clients show that high‐performing companies have learned how to determine their strategic market position, or SMP, and how to make investments that increase overall SMP and drive long‐term value.

Traditional strategic thinking argues that greater market share equals greater profit. But bigger is not necessarily better; in many cases, it can actually be worse. As most companies use it, market share can be a misleading and dangerous measure. The trick lies in being able to identify the right market segments in which to focus efforts and improve one's share. Successful companies understand where growth will build competitive strength and profitability and where it will not.

Strategic market positioning is a tool for decision‐making shared by management functions throughout an organization that can be applied in a broad range of situations. Examples include prioritizing sales or development efforts, finding new and profitable markets, improving low‐growth or low‐margin businesses, and identifying acquisition opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on scientific models in conceptualising the evolutionary bases of contemporary behaviours, and make cross‐species comparisons, to account for male managerial activities in situ in health organizations.

In the animal world, males of many species display in order to induce females to mate. Such lekking behaviour involves inter alia, strutting, puffing out, catching attention via the use of ornamental physical characteristics, exhibiting gaudily‐coloured body parts, singing or splashing, and other courting and wooing strategies. The paper applies these behavioural repertoires as an explanatory device for male‐dominant organizational lekking in a set of contemporary settings. It draws on six studies of managerial talk, appearance and behaviour in order to do so.

Within the organizational lek male managers display mainly by power dressing, positioning, and exercising power and influence via verbal and behavioural means. Social and religious mores prohibit overt sexual coupling in organizations but lekking for other rewards is nevertheless pursued by male managers. The paper explores this managerial patterning, compares it to the lekking behaviour of other species, and discusses points of comparison and departure. It shows how male managers display within various sub‐habitats, and discusses the central issues of appearance, tasks and work assignment, physical interaction structure, and talk and physiognomy.

Understanding what makes people tick via deep explanations than are customarily rendered is a vital contribution of scholarship to the practical world of management.

The evolutionary bases of contemporary behaviours, and cross‐species accounts, may prove useful paradigms for other theorists and empiricists in organizational studies, and could encourage the development of a new field that might be labeled evolutionary organizational behaviour.

This study aims to examine whether audit partner public-client specialization and busyness impact the cost of debt.

This paper uses data from companies in Thailand for the 1998–2016 period. To measure the cost of debt, this study uses the realized interest cost, measured as the total interest expense for the one year ahead divided by the average value of total debt outstanding during that year.

The results show a positive association between the cost of debt and two measures of public-client specialization and busyness, which are the number of public clients audited by an individual audit partner in each year and the proportion of the number of public clients divided by the number of total clients in an individual audit partner’s portfolio.

In the literature, there is a lack of research on whether a higher number of public clients in an audit partner’s portfolio leads to better or worse perceived audit quality. This study extends prior literature by examining whether creditors’ perception of audit quality depends on the audit partner specialization or busyness and specifically, on the number of public clients of the auditor. The findings indicate that public-client busyness of a particular audit partner, rather than the audit partner public-client specialization, matters in the cost of debt.

In this paper, the authors adopt the theory of the circular economy to study the transitions that take place in three case studies in Mexico and Ecuador. The work is aimed to systematize a circular economy assessment tool that fosters opportunities for improvement in business practices.

The methodology is based on a descriptive quantitative analysis, where a checklist is made with 91 items and nine study variables. This is from the study of the bibliography and business practice. Furthermore, the neural network method is used in a case study to predict the level of circular economy and the importance of each variable according to the sensitivity by the Lek’s profile method.

It is based on a descriptive quantitative analysis, where a checklist with 91 items and nine study variables is made, defined from a bibliographic study and business practice. Furthermore, the neural network method is used in a case study to predict the level of circular economy and the importance of each variable based on sensitivity.

The application of the tool requires prior knowledge of the circular economy approach, which is why specialized personnel are needed for its application. This makes research more expensive in time and human resources.

The practical and methodological contribution of this work lies in the feasibility of the tool that favors the definition of improvement actions for the implementation contribution to the circular economy in business practices.

The social contribution is framed in the gradual transition to circular economy approaches in underdeveloped countries.

The use of the neural network method to predict the level of circular economy in a case study allows making decisions in a predictive way. This encourages the development of the circular economy according to the context needs.

En este trabajo adoptamos la teoría de la economía circular para estudiar las transiciones que ocurren en tres casos de estudio en México y Ecuador. El trabajo tiene como objetivo sistematizar una herramienta de evaluación de la economía circular que fomente oportunidades de mejora en las prácticas empresariales.

La metodología se basa en un análisis cuantitativo descriptivo, donde se elabora un checklist con 91 ítems y nueve variables de estudio. Esto a partir del estudio de la bibliografía y la práctica empresarial. Además, el método de la red neuronal se utiliza en un estudio de caso para predecir el nivel de economía circular y la importancia de cada variable según la sensibilidad utilizando el método Lekprofile.

Los resultados muestran que la herramienta es aplicable a diferentes contextos y simultáneamente permite la evaluación de la economía circular de forma holística. Además, la herramienta se puede vincular a técnicas predictivas, como el método de red neuronal. Esto se demostró en un estudio de caso.

en el uso del método de redes neuronales para predecir el nivel de economía circular en un caso de estudio. Esto permite la capacidad de tomar decisiones de forma predictiva y esto incentiva el desarrollo de la economía circular según la necesidad del contexto.

Las limitaciones se centran en la necesidad de conocer el tema de la economía circular para la aplicación de la herramienta. Por lo tanto, se necesita capacitación antes de comenzar un nuevo estudio. Esto encarece la investigación en tiempo y recursos humanos.

El aporte práctico y metodológico de este trabajo radica en la viabilidad de la herramienta que favorece la definición de acciones de mejora para la contribución de la implementación a la economía circular en las prácticas empresariales.

La contribución social es parte de la transición gradual a enfoques de economía circular en países subdesarrollados.

Atlas Ltd was a small local enterprise, bottling soft drinks for the Albanian market. Although Atlas Ltd was not actively seeking to expand into foreign markets, the domestic market in Albania was becoming flooded with competition from abroad. The time had come to evaluate strategy, and plan for the future.

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.