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Data used to develop the case included primary data from employees and supervisors of a commercial floorcovering manufacturing plant in Northwest Georgia. The case company is not disguised.

The survey was developed using existing instruments from the Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Literature. Instruments were listed in Exhibits 2 through 7. The survey administration had the support of the Vice President for Resources and Facilities, and employees and their supervisors were given time to complete the surveys. The data gathered was analyzed by the researcher using SPSS statistical software.

Established in 1957, J&J started as a family-owned business but had grown and diversified its product offerings by focusing on commercial flooring. It survived several economic downturns and remained competitive in a market dominated by more prominent flooring manufacturers. J&J Industries strived to empower its 800 employees with various incentive programs. Employees remained loyal to J&J; many had worked for the company for over 15 years. However, management wanted to measure the impact of empowering and initiatives on employee performance and satisfaction to determine the real power of employee incentive programs. The Resources and Facilities Vice President employed Professor Lopez, a Management Professor, to develop a survey to measure these constructs and analyze the data to guide future incentive programs. Data from the employee and supervisor survey was provided along with the statistical analysis results for interpretation and recommendations for VP Fordham.

The target audience for this case is primarily students in a research methodology course and students studying quantitative regression analysis and interpretation. The focus is predominantly on graduate-level students in Master of Business Administration or Master of Accounting programs in business. Graduate students should have completed courses in management or organizational behavior, business statistics or quantitative methods or data visualization and cleaning as background knowledge for this case. Specifically, students should understand regression analysis and know when and how the tool is used for managerial decision-making.

Entrepreneurship; tourism and hospitality.

Junior or senior-level business students as well as graduate-level (MBA and/or EMBA) classes in entrepreneurship, small business management, strategic management, international business or international economics.

Cuban tour guides working for the communist Castro Government dream of working for themselves or leaving for the USA. Their story is contrasted by a visit to Cuba as told by a US business professor.

To compare entrepreneurship under capitalism that is slowly relaxing their communistic rules, to learn more about the island of Cuba and its potential for tourism and new venture creation, to understand the legal, social, political, historical and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship, to hypothesize or brainstorm potential new ventures for Cuba.

Teaching notes; photos also available upon request from the author.

Starts from the premiss that quality and productivity are important tools for organizations to use to achieve competitive advantage. Takes a strategic perspective from which to examine why productivity is important to the economy and to look at quality as an integral part of productivity improvement. Considers the forces which support productivity and quality as strategic weapons, including key organizational initiatives and processes. Presents tables which compare the past, present and future states of quality, productivity and manufacturing strategies. Concludes with a presentation of ways in which to implement and measure the success of productivity and quality strategies.

This case presents turnaround alternatives for a UK-based company, Carpets International (CI), a manufacturer focused on woven carpets and suffering from the ageing equipment and resulting product quality issues during the late 1990s. The case profiles CI’s position in the UK marketplace as well as highlights the growing international competition from Europe and Mexico. Comparisons between customer’s preferences for carpeting in the USA vs the UK are included. Additionally, the case introduces first-mover advantages in the application of innovational ideas applied to a mature industry in another country.

This case study was written by the CEO of the company as the lead author. The case is not disguised.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate strategic management/business policy classes.

This study aims to provide a case example of two partner institutions and business faculty who creatively used a collaborative online international learning (COIL) experience during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to online learning to internationalize an undergraduate business class and use existing technology to offer a case study project to further students’ global mindset.

Using open-ended qualitative comments from an American college and a Peruvian university, researchers uncovered key themes from a virtual COIL-based learning experience offered as part of an international business class.

Student end-of-course evaluation comments from both countries validated the success of the learning experience and value of working together with other students and faculty in a virtual setting.

Areas for future research are provided to extend these initial exploratory findings. However, the implications are clear that the methodology is also appropriate in nonpandemic situations and can quickly bring a global mindset to remote corners of the globe and ensure all students experience the “virtual” study abroad, even when there are travel limitations or budget restrictions for students or the institutions.

The implementation detail provided can be easily replicated by other institutions with a global mindset and internationalization goals.

The proliferation of COIL-based experiences will impact how study abroad experiences are defined and offered in the future.

While researchers have documented COIL experiences in the academic literature, their use during the COVID-19 pandemic, as often the only solution for on-going internationalization, has not been thoroughly studied or documented. In addition, the class activities further used team-based international workplace pedagogy, authentic engagement and technology.

Using the resource-based and the resource dependence theoretical approaches of the firm, the paper explores firm responses to supply chain disruptions during COVID-19. The paper explores how firms develop localization, agility and digitization (L-A-D) capabilities by applying (or not applying) their critical circular economy (CE) and blockchain technology (BCT)-related resources and capabilities that they either already possess or acquire from external agents.

An abductive approach, applying exploratory qualitative research was conducted over a sample of 24 firms. The sample represented different industries to study their critical BCT and CE resources and capabilities and the L-A-D capabilities. Firm resources and capabilities were classified using the technology, organization and environment (TOE) framework.

Findings show significant patterns on adoption levels of the blockchain-enabled circular economy system (BCES) and L-A-D capability development. The greater the BCES adoption capabilities, the greater the L-A-D capabilities. Organizational size and industry both influence the relationship between BCES and L-A-D. Accordingly, research propositions and a research framework are proposed.

Given the limited sample size, the generalizability of the findings is limited. Our findings extend supply chain resiliency research. A series of propositions provide opportunities for future research. The resource-based view and resource-dependency theories are useful frameworks to better understanding the relationship between firm resources and supply chain resilience.

The results and discussion of this study serve as useful guidance for practitioners to create CE and BCT resources and capabilities for improving supply chain resiliency.

The study shows the socio-economic and socio-environmental importance of BCES in the COVID-19 or similar crises.

The study is one of the initial attempts that highlights the possibilities of BCES across multiple industries and their value during pandemics and disruptions.

Romania is making a strong comeback in the international business arena after 45 years of communism and freedom since the revolution of 1989. This article takes a strategic perspective of the opportunities available to US investors. The article begins with a review of the post‐communist economy in Romania through current US investment status. Key reasons to invest in Romania today include the current government and its vision for Romania, the stable business environment and growing industrial,agricultural and technology sectors. The article concludes with investment strategies and the importance of pairing with local partners.

The comparative potential impact of electric restructuring laws and attendant regulations on electric utilities and ultimately on their collective human resources in Ireland, Germany and in the Tennessee Valley, USA, is the focus of this research. It includes personal observations of utilities in both EU countries and in the Tennessee Valley as well as personal interviews with utility officials by Dennis Yocom, who has been associated with the electric utility industry for 27 years.

This paper examines the concept and the implementation of telecommuting and how it will affect the employee, organization and the general business environment. It also provides suggestions for employers implementing a telecommuting program. In this new millennium, it is obvious that the workforce and the way of work are changing drastically. Telecommuting, or allowing the employees to perform their jobs away from the central or primary business location, is increasing. While many jobs have some aspects that may lend themselves to telecommuting, white‐collar jobs that require a great amount of independent work are the most suitable for telecommuting. The paper also discusses the importance of selecting the right employees for telecommuting.

Mergers in higher education seem to be more common as academic institutions work to control costs and avoid program duplications in challenging economic times and adopt the more common cost saving measures often espoused from business mergers. The purpose of this paper is to highlight successes from a complementarity-based merger of two institutions in the University System of Georgia (USG) and present results over time.

A case study methodology was employed to explain why a particular merger resulted in greater growth compared to other system-wide academic mergers. This research focuses on a single merger of two institutions in Georgia, one of seven such mergers in the USG institutions to date, involving Gainesville State College and North Georgia College and State University to become the University of North Georgia. Observations are made and complimented by secondary data to rank growth among the seven USG consolidations.

The case findings highlight the success from the complementarity of these institutions. While the two were unique institutions, the success of the merger was linked to the underlying complementarity issues.

Using the strategic issues inherent in mergers from the business literature, the merger of the two institutions is profiled and discussion and recommendations are provided along with areas for future research.