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This paper aims to present an opportunity to explore the opportunities and challenges involved in running a business with a strongly ingrained social vision in the complex, multi-dimensional environment of an emerging economy. Key learning areas are as follows: How the concept of inclusive innovation applies to the real-world difficulties faced by businesses operating in informal economies. By exploring the tensions between growth and inclusivity in Silulo’s development, students will grasp the challenges entrepreneurs face as a business starts to gain momentum and change, and gain appreciation for the trade-offs that occur when choosing between franchising and organic growth. The challenges of a rapidly evolving technological environment, the need to adapt service offerings at pace, and the importance of balancing financial considerations with deeper social values will find application far beyond the informal economy context of the Silulo story.

This teaching case looks at Silulo Ulutho Technologies via CEO Luvuyo Rani and the challenges he faces in balancing expansion and profitability with its mission of empowering disenfranchised communities – challenges exacerbated by a changing telecommunications environment, with more widespread internet availability, mobile phones and online training courses encroaching on Silulo’s traditional service offering.

This case focusses primarily on the processes of inclusive innovation and is suitable for graduate courses in social entrepreneurship, business model innovation, sustainability, business and society, strategic management, emerging markets, business in Africa and organisational studies in general. The case is suitable for Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Executive MBA academic programmes and delegates on Executive Education programmes.

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 3: Entrepreneurship

Isaac O. Amoako is a researcher at the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) and lecturer in enterprise and small business at the Department of International Management and Innovation, all at Middlesex University Business School, UK. He completed his Ph.D. in 2012 in the same university and his paper on “alternative institutions” used by exporting SMEs in Ghana has been accepted and forthcoming in International Small Business Journal (ISBJ). His research interests include enterprise and small business start-up and management, interorganizational trust, culture and organizations, and international business management. Prior to his academic career he was an entrepreneur starting and managing his own businesses for over 20 years.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Change in business education is effortlessly elusive. No matter how often the great and the good of either the business or business school worlds lament the lack of adequate teaching through Masters of Business Administrations and other programmes, very rarely does anything seem to change. Managers are still put though their paces at business schools; they still read the same “seminal” books and case studies; they still get their blue riband qualification; they still receive a hefty increase in salary after graduation.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organisations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Purpose – The chapter provides a review of the debates about the discipline of public administration and public management as art, craft, and science. Thus, the chapter includes a conceptualization of public administration and a discussion of public administration and public management research, scholarship, and practice. The review of the discipline includes a historical perspective and contemporary debates of public administration, new public management (NPM), public sector management, and governance in order to discuss the future trajectories and trends of the discipline.

Design/Methodology/Approach – A range of historical, seminal, and recently published scholarly works are reviewed and discussed, including also an analysis based on primary and secondary research of journal databases, conference proceedings, academic schools, and websites relevant to the discipline.

Findings – The study of government in various guises – whether public administration, public management, governance, public policy – will continue to develop, evolve, and fascinate scholars and practitioners. There will be a continued interest and study of the business of government with three possible trends: (1) a narrow focus on technocratic, managerial approaches in an attempt to provide solutions for more effective and efficient government; (2) a multidisciplinary approach to addressing complex social problems or “wicked policy” problems across narrow specialized interests for “greater principles” of society; and (3) methodological pluralism in the study of government, which may add to the depth or fragmentation of the discipline.

Research limitations/Implications – The research is limited to a review with some primary and secondary research. It provides scholars and practitioners with the conceptualization of public administration, public management and governance. The chapter provides a critical perspective of the state of research and scholarship with an argument that academics need to move beyond parochial debates within the discipline and provide practitioners with empirically based solutions to increasingly complex social and “wicked policy” problems.

Practical implications – This chapter provides scholars, students, and practitioners with (1) a conceptual understanding of public administration, public management, NPM and governance; (2) a historical and contemporary perspective of the discipline; and (3) a critical perspective of research and scholarship that will provide a debate on the state of discipline.

Originality/Value – The chapter is a synthesis and review of the discipline in terms of research and scholarship drawing upon international perspectives to provide a critical debate for scholars and practitioners.

Entrepreneurship; Business Strategy; Business Environment courses.

This case is appropriate for use in Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programs as well as advanced undergraduate courses. The case provides an apt simulation of the emerging Indian fast food companies in the competitive dynamics of Indian business environment.

Rakesh an MBA graduate from the University of Hartford, Connecticut, after four years of corporate experience, made a decision to start a business of his own. Thus, was born Infusions Foods Pvt Ltd (IFPL) an entrepreneurial venture of Rakesh Raghunathan. IFPL launched its fast food chain of grilled wraps under the brand name of PETAWRAP. The brand was positioned to target the recent consumer behavior shift of Indian consumers which was towards healthy, nutritious food combined with the concept of necessity-based eating out.IFPL had successfully opened six company owned outlets by March 2011. Their strategy for success was built on the age-old four-point formula of a good-quality product, at value for money prices, delivered efficiently to the customers. The absence of “a hygienic branded product” in this Indian fast food industry contributed to the initial success of their company. Rakesh believed that key to building the brand image depended on quality in terms of operations standardization and product quality.

The case is structured to achieve the following pedagogical objectives: To identify the forces on which of an entrepreneurial opportunity is dependent; To analyze the changes in competitive dynamics of Indian fast food industry and identify the factors that lead to the emergence and acceptance of PetaWrap; To understand the challenges of building a brand in low-cost business model and the economics of cost incurred; To evaluate the business strategy and the business model adopted by the company for expansion.

Teaching notes

Since the financial crisis, there has been ongoing debate about market weaknesses and the training of tomorrow’s business leaders. Leadership education must tackle difficult global, technical, and ethical challenges. In this chapter, the author wishes to clarify how teaching institutions must innovate to deal with these problems and contribute to a sustainable future. First, the author will identify a conceptual framework for both leadership and education. The definition of leadership in entrepreneurship and management includes the notion that real leaders must create something new and lead their followers into an innovative future.

According to the humanist ideal, leaders should learn to be autonomous, rational, and responsible persons with creative personalities. After this discussion, the author will compare these findings with the content of various highly ranked leadership programs. The author will show that they do not impart real-world information and that the skills they do promote are largely theoretical. Their programs should place more importance on ethics as well as on globalism. Neither critical thinking nor an emphasis on technology or international focus is included. Instead of helping students become creative personalities, most business schools focus on career goals. The author concludes that leadership education must be transformed to bring forth innovative leaders who think sustainably.

The article discusses several problems in educational services marketing and reports on a study of MBA student information sources before course selection. It then provides a case study of the redevelopment of the Bath University Masters Degree in Business Administration, and of the positioning of the degree in the market. It concludes that educational institutions need to improve their marketing and in particular need to understand student buyer behaviour including information gathering behaviour.

This study aims to investigate the key elements that influence knowledge sharing practice, primarily the relationship between knowledge sharing practice and organizational performance within the oil and gas (OG) industry.

A sample of 203 responses was collected from the OG industry using an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using applied structural equation modeling to validate the model and test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that significant relationships exist among the model constructs. These findings provide a better understanding of the factors that influence knowledge sharing practices within the OG industry. These findings prove that knowledge sharing practices positively impact organizational performance through cost reduction, organization growth and intangible benefits.

This study demonstrates that organizations in the OG industry may increase performance by adopting knowledge sharing practices. This study also provides practitioners with important information to enhance knowledge sharing practice within their organizations. For instance, managers should focus on Web 2.0 and other knowledge sharing systems to facilitate both tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. The findings provide empirical evidence that knowledge sharing practices allow organizations to transfer expert knowledge to younger generations of employees. As a result, organizations will be able to capture knowledge and alleviate the negative impact of high staff turnover within the OG industry.

The lack of knowledge sharing practices and the eminent loss of technical knowledge within the (OG) industry, because of retirements and turnover, create a difficult challenge for practitioners. Research on knowledge sharing within the OG industry is limited. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth analysis regarding the critical knowledge sharing practices and valuable information to researcher and practitioners’ knowledge sharing practices within the OG industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between a chief finance officer's (CFO's) financial expertise and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The paper's sample consists of firms from the 2005 S&P 500 Index. Data on CSR come from Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini (KLD), Inc. Data on CFO financial expertise were had collected. Consistent with prior research, experience (tenure), education (masters of business administration degree), and professional experience (certified public accountant designation) are used to measure the CFO's financial expertise.

Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 2005, it is found that CFO experience (measured by tenure) is positively related to CSR at a significant level. In addition, the results indicate that CSR activities are not related to the CFO's education (measured as a Master's of Business Administration degree) or accounting expertise (measured as certified public accountant designation). The findings suggest that CFOs with more experience engage in more CSR activities than CFOs with less experience.

This study is valuable for several reasons: First, the study contributes to both the CSR literature and the CFO financial expertise literature by delivering new evidence on the link between CFO financial expertise and corporate social responsibility. Second, the study provides useful information to boards of directors, corporations and investors on certain CFO characteristics associated with effective CSR. Third, the study provides empirical evidence to support the suggested shift in the CFO's role from accountant to co‐driver of a firm's long‐term strategy.

The central messages of the article are threefold. First, a summary of research testing the perception that cross‐functional organization designs provide key advantages and differentiators for firms in today's hypercompetitive business climate. Second, includes a multifaceted “body of evidence” (e.g. multiple data sources, a range of industries, and various levels of management). Third, pragmatic recommendations regarding how to advance elusive cross‐functional organization design constructs, which today's executives are increasingly seeking to implement.

The article addresses several key questions – are organizations today more like cross‐functional “symphonies” or do they still resemble the traditional, functional, manufacturing model? Are cross‐functional organizations really more effective than functional organizations? And, if cross‐functional organizations are more effective, why aren't they more prevalent? To answer these questions, information from three key sources was assembled to test a body of evidence: first, a Business Schools Programs Review: a comparison of “functional” versus “cross‐functional” business school programs, that included 61 schools offering Masters of Business Administration degrees, located across the USA; second, a scan of the business literature available from five key online sources; and third, a management survey that included 212 total respondents from 37 different industries.

The evidence presented supports five key conclusions: “Functionality” is still the prevailing organization design. Business schools are not functionally focused, but corporate training is. Functionality dominates the management literature. More managers manage functionally. Cross‐functional organizations appear to have several performance advantages over functional organizations.

The key limitation of the current research, and implication for future research, is that cross‐functional and functional organizational financial performance comparisons were not conducted. Financial performance comparisons should be addressed by future research.

The article provides a set of 12 pragmatic recommendations regarding how to implement cross‐functional organization design structures.

The content of the article is useful to executives and managers for several reasons, including: pragmatic recommendations regarding how to implement cross‐functional organization design structures, which today's executives are increasingly seeking to employ. Multifaceted evidence highlighting the differences between functional and cross‐functional structures. Research confirming the assumption that cross‐functional organization designs provide a key differentiator for firms in today's hypercompetitive business climate. Broad application to companies across multiple industries. An overview of available organization design literature and case examples.