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To understand a firm’s service concept and process; to explain the service design that differentiates itself by making trade-offs in operations and service offering; to identify the importance of deliberately designed interrelated systems and resources to achieve growth in services and to evaluate the fit of new design elements in the service offering.

Ajay Takeaway Foods LLP (Ajay Foods) is a food venture founded by Mr Jaideep Solanki and Mr Ajay Solanki and operates as a chain of quick service restaurants with a simple mission to sell food that is good, affordable and accessible to all. Ajay Foods serves only pure vegetarian and limited variants of burger, pizza and cold coffee. Ajay Foods rolled out 75 stores in just 18 months during the COVID 19 pandemic. Ajay Foods’ founders were contemplating on expanding menu. There was growing demand for food items such as samosa, wraps, sandwiches and French fries. One of the founders got into dilemma: How many items? and Which item(s) to add to the menu?

This case can be used at post-graduate level to teach basic frameworks of service concept and design. The case covers a range of topics such as service processes, service elements and product offerings in a service setting. It can be used effectively with MBAs and Hospitality Management program in courses that focus on Service Management, Service Operations or Service Marketing Strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

The learning outcomes of the case are as follows:

1. Students will understand the interdependency of functional areas, such as operations, marketing, human resources (HR) and finance, in a manufacturing firm.

2. Students will analyze the conventional factory to focus on factory frameworks (Skinner, 1974).

3. Students will learn to analyze (associate) a company's performance reports (key performance indicators and profit and loss reports) with operations, marketing and sales functions.

4. Students will relate the concept of strategic resonance (Brown and Fai, 2006) to functional strategies.

Tariq Khattabi, a mechanical engineer with an MBA, joined Flexi Pack Dubai, UAE, as a general manager on 1 April 2019. During the recruitment interview, he learned that the company was struggling to maintain its breakeven point, and his first responsibility was to develop a strategy to ensure the growth of the organization. From the initial meetings with the production, finance and senior marketing managers, he identified problems related to the plant’s operations and sales. Although Flexi Pack enjoyed a good market reputation and profits, of late, the company needed help to make it profitable. Tariq's dilemma was to develop a strategy to put the organization back on the growth path.

He wondered whether the operations and marketing problems could be solved simultaneously. He had to present his strategic approach to the board within two weeks. Through this case study, management students can understand the interdependency of functional areas, such as operations, marketing, HR and finance. Students will learn the focused factory concept and a plant within a plant. They will be able to identify and appreciate dissonance and resonance between functional strategies and the importance of aligning functional strategies. Moreover, students will learn about consumer packaging types, material and their converting processes, which are the essential aspects of the fast-moving consumer goods business.

The target audience can be an Executive Program in Operations Management, BBA and Postgraduate Diploma in Management students who have opted for Operations Management or Operations Strategy as their major/minor specialization.

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 11: Strategy.

Although there is evidence that the efforts of pharmaceutical marketing exert a positive and significant influence on physician prescription decisions, the specific mechanisms by which this impact occurs remain uncertain. To address this issue, this study aims to investigate whether the physician’s habit persistence may explain the relationship between marketing efforts such as brand attributes and drug promotion and prescribing behavior. This study also explores whether there was any significant difference between specialists and general practitioners (GPs) regarding the effect of brand attributes and drug promotion on physician’s habit persistence, which influences prescribing behavior.

A survey instrument was administered to physicians, encompassing specialists in a particular field and GPs who provide primary care services. A nonparametric partial least squares multigroup analysis was used to analyze 393 valid responses using partial least squares-structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that the decision to prescribe the drug may be affected by the physician’s habit persistence in the presence of vital brand attributes and drug promotion. The relationship between physician’s habit persistence and prescribing behavior is significant in GPs and specialist groups. The findings also reveal that brand attributes are the most influential and significant determinant of physician’s habit persistence in the GPs group. In addition, physician specialists are more aware of the influence of drug promotion initiatives than GPs. Furthermore, this study discovered that the relationship between drug promotion and physician’s habit persistence indicates a significant difference between specialists and GPs.

Although several marketing scholars discuss the factors influencing prescribing behavior, a few studies have shown the role of brand attributes and drug promotion and their effect on physician’s habit persistence. This study will specifically contribute by examining the mediating role of physician’s habit persistence between marketing efforts and prescribing behavior. In addition, so far, no studies have effectively made a comparative analysis across physicians regarding the effect of marketing efforts on physician’s habit persistence and prescribing behavior.