Search results

This paper aims to enable the application of Value Proposition Canvas and Business Model Canvas to evaluate an opportunity; understand the commonalities and differences between social and commercial enterprises; and recognize the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/economic logic.

Neha Arora demonstrated exceptional capabilities of defying the social stigma associated with People with Disabilities (PwDs) to establish Planet Abled, a first in the world venture to provide accessible leisure excursions to PwDs. This entrepreneurial initiative enabling group and solo travel for PwDs as inclusive tourism has created the possibility of social sustainability by bringing change in the lives of PwDs and their family members by ignoring either the insensitive or overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwDs. Its potential growth qualifies for scaling-up, but it can also attract the existing big travel solution providers to enter this domain. Considering these facts, Neha faces multiple dilemmas: How can she sustain and scale up the early momentum created by her enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/ economic logic while scaling-up Planet Abled?

This case study is suitable for both undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

This case study can be used in graduate- and executive-level.

This case study can be used in entrepreneurship, leadership, crisis management, business succession, organizational behaviour and business expansion.

In 2020, the EtonHouse International Education Group (EtonHouse) celebrated its 25th anniversary. Under the leadership of Ng Gim Choo, founder and managing director, EtonHouse has become a renowned education provider noted for its well-designed inquiry-based curriculum. Since its initial expansion in Singapore, the institution has spread across the world. Throughout its history, EtonHouse has faced many crises. However, employing paradoxical leadership, Ng Gim Choo has managed to accommodate conflicting demands and guide EtonHouse away from adversity. In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) posed an unprecedented challenge to EtonHouse. In addition to developing business strategies in response to COVID-19, Ng Gim Choo has been considering whether the time is ripe to hand over the reins to Ng Yi Xian, her son and EtonHouse successor.

By presenting the dilemma of business succession in crises, the case study facilitates in-depth discussion of several issues related to family business succession, succession planning and crisis management. Students will be able to explore the following issues: 1. The concept and implications of paradoxical leadership and its application in business decisions. 2. How to lead during crises. 3. The tension between succession plans and crisis management. 4. The characteristics and implications of woman entrepreneurship.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Strategy.

The case study is intended for organization theory and strategic management courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate (MBA) levels.

The case describes a company located in a fictitious developing country. The main activity of the company is the exploitation and production of tin, which it has developed over its 40-year history (1971-2011). During the first 33 years, it developed three capabilities: namely, technical, productive and the generation of trust among employees. The case illustrates three characteristics of capabilities: problem solving and complexity, practicing and succeeding, and reliability over time. The case also illustrates a paradox related to capabilities and shows three of its causes: path dependency and lock-in to a given course of action, structural inertia, and the absence of a capability dynamization function. In 2009, the company was faced with the need to reshape its capabilities and the arrival of a new President to the company provided the appropriate occasion to analyse this option.

These include: understanding what an organizational capability is and what its main characteristics are; understanding the process by which an organizational capability emerges and develops, and how it may be eroded in a given scenario; understanding a paradox an organization faces when capabilities are developed; and understanding why the concept of dynamic capabilities does not add power to the concept of capabilities.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access. Videos with interviews of employees of the case company are also available.

This case uses two key theoretical notions for discussion and analysis: Policy-trade off model by Deborah Stone is adapted to the context of decision-making during the cyclone warning [Stone, Deborah. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision-Making. Third, New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012.]. The critical success factors in disaster response- John R. Harrald’s five-stage framework is applied to analyse Case B. [Harrald, John R. “Agility and Discipline: Critical Success Factors for Disaster Response:” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 8 September 2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716205285404.].

This case is written with the information collected through interviews, over three months from March 2020, with Ms Ranjana Chopra (Indian Administrative Services), a senior civil servant working for the Government of Odisha, who was associated with the event in the case. Secondary sources, including newspaper reports and meteorological bulletins from the Indian Meteorological Department, is also made use of.

Anupama Gowda was the District Magistrate of Kalinga in the state of Odisha, in the Eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. In April 2019, when the meteorological department issued a cyclone warning, she had to take a call on how to go ahead. Her team did not seem too enthused as Kalinga was away from the coast and meteorological warnings were taken as routine. The case discusses Gowda’s dilemma on whether to push for full-fledged preparations or a limited preparation at least or leave it laissez-faire. She made the decision by 24th April and “what happened” serve as Case B.

This case is intended to cover two key competencies: decision-making in ambiguity for public service professionals or bureaucrats and disaster response within a limited time period and resources. This case is useful for undergraduate-level foundational courses with decision-making under ambiguity as a component; in management, public policy and public administration disciplines. Executive training or short-term courses for early-career public service professionals (with no solid background in management/policy theory) on decision-making at the local administration level.

The learning objectives are intended to stimulate the students’ comprehension of the various challenges faced by Indian startups in the digital ecosystem. With the changing working dynamics in organizations around the globe, managers are expected to explore unconventional business models to facilitate operational growth. The case study is a valuable resource for graduate students to enhance and evolve their critical thinking and solution-oriented skills as forthcoming managers of digital businesses. Students should be able to analyze the case, respond to the questions and evaluate the consequences of workplace flexibility, moonlighting and its applicability in an organizational context. With the Indian Government introducing schemes such as the Digital India initiative and Startup India, it is predicted that numerous startups will opt for digital business standards and a remote work approach. The case bridges classroom theories and a real-life digital company to help students connect with emerging market scenarios.

During the digital era, India witnessed a shift in companies’ work culture, which amplified when COVID-19 hit the country. Organizations started to work remotely and experienced the numerous benefits it brought. The comfort of working from home was greater for digital businesses whose significant operations could be performed online. However, is it really that productive for digital companies to telecommute? The case illustrates how a digital company, Career Pandit, formed in 2018, unfurls and expands its business and further highlights the challenges the pandemic raised concerning people management. In addition to the discussion, the purpose of the case is to determine the implication of workplace flexibility and moonlighting and how Indian startups cope with the uncertain future challenges it brings.

Under graduate and postgraduate students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The authors perused hundreds of court documents and identified 28 that were most relevant to this case. The authors also used press interviews with the women highlighted in the case. The authors have no relationship with the company and no one from the company has reviewed the information presented in this case. As the case is drawn from sworn legal testimonies, interviews and related documents in the public domain, the authors did not have to seek approval for publication.

Pinterest touted itself as “the nicest place on the Internet.” It had an almost 80% female user base and purported to have an inclusive culture that embraced diversity. However, in June 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, two former female employees of color violated their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to publicly accuse Pinterest of racial and gender discrimination. In August 2020, Pinterest’s former Chief Operating Officer, Francoise Brougher, filed a lawsuit charging the company with gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination, and authored a public blog post titled, The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity, detailing her own experience with the company’s discriminatory culture. Three days later 236 of Pinterest’s 2,545 employees staged a virtual walkout and 445 employees signed a petition in an attempt to change Pinterest’s policies and culture. The case provides a brief overview of Pinterest, including its mission, values and organizational culture, and details several incidents and complaints by female and minority employees. The case questions whether employee complaints are a relatively narrow issue involving disgruntled former employees who did not fit at the organization or a much broader issue involving discrimination and managerial neglect in creating and maintaining a nondiscriminatory, inclusive culture. Students are encouraged to evaluate the situation in which Co-Founder, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Ben Silbermann finds himself, evaluate the actions taken and decide if Silbermann should take any additional actions to address the discrimination claims and ensure a positive culture for all employees.

This case is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate level courses in organizational behavior, human resource management and business law or any course where discrimination and workplace culture are discussed.

AgriBusiness entrepreneurship

Post-graduate and executive education classes in agribusiness: MBA, Executive Education programmes for senior managers; entrepreneurial studies and workshops for SMEs.

This case study is centred on Ibrahim, a businessman in Tanzania, who decided to start a business to process and sell cassava starch flour. Following a market survey, he realized that the demand for cassava starch surpassed the supply and planned to bridge this gap. To realize his business idea, he applied for and received a loan from an investment bank (Tanzania Investment bank), with which he bought processing machines and some acres of land for the cultivation of the crop. Unfortunately, he encountered a major setback because the sub-standard processing machine he bought stopped working after one week. He could neither repair his equipment nor buy new ones because the bank refused to extend his loan facility. Ibrahim was also having problems meeting a huge international and local demand for his cassava because of inadequate supply of cassava by local farmers.

This paper aims to understand the entire cassava value chain, which is made up of three major players: growers, processors and end-users; to understand the business case for opting to focus on one of the three areas, what arguments could be given for being a grower, a processor or an end-user; to understand that there are different types of end-user products: cassava starch flour, high-quality cassava flour, both of which can come from an intermediate product called “grates”; to understand the reason for the paradox, that there is (potentially) a high demand for cassava flour locally, and yet these end-users are not yet willing to patronize the local market because supply is low, and supply is low, not because farmers cannot produce more, but simply because they are not processing more – why is this?; to understand that the “processing” stage seem to be the rate-limiting-stage in the cassava starch production value chain – how can this process be improved?; to understand the case for aggregating local farmers into cooperatives to produce enough cassava roots to feed the need of industrial processors, and aggregators can also collect and pre-process into “grates” before selling to industrial processing companies; and to understand the importance of locating processing plants close to the farms.

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.

The business-travel department of American Express is facing rapid growth in demand but is plagued with overstaffing in some offices because of the broad distribution of client demand. Management's challenge is to reduce costs in local offices while maintaining a high level of service. One alternative under consideration is a centralized regional business-travel center to handle reservation functions for up to 20 other Amexco offices. This case gives students the opportunity to apply queuing theory to a practical situation. Normally, in order to facilitate the numerous calculations required, it is used with the UVA “QUEUE” program.

After completing the case, the students shall be able to do the following:▪ explain the key features and roles associated with non-governmental organizations (NGOs; comprehension);▪ describe major activities/programs run by Kilkaari-Bachpan Ki (knowledge);▪ describe the challenges faced by not-for-profit, non-governmental and voluntary organizations operating at a local level (knowledge);▪ developing TOWS matrix for Kilkaari’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities to provide strategies for making the necessary change (analysis);▪ explain the change management strategies used by Kilkaari during COVID-19 using Kurt Lewin’s model (analysis); and▪ develop recommendations for the problems faced by Kilkaari (evaluation).

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world was left in shambles. The epidemic has had a profound impact on the way organizations used to function. It compelled all sectors and companies to change their working methods and move closer to virtual conceptions. Organizations that were able to adapt to the new environment have thrived, while the rest have struggled and continue to struggle. In today’s world, embracing virtual scenarios is more about perseverance and consistency than it is about making a conscious decision. Organizations such as NGOs have limited financial and non-financial means to adapt to such changes, and some of them were unable to suffice during the tough times.Despite this, the current case study focuses on the NGOs’ path during the pandemic: Kilkaari-Bachpan Ki. The NGO’s primary objective is to provide underprivileged children with free access to education. The current scenario illustrates how the Kilkaarians (team members of Kilkaari) modified their behavior in response to the crisis. To be used in an organizational behavior course, the case is intended for management students. Kurt Lewin’s model of change, which includes unfreezing, mobility and refreezing, can be understood by students. For this research, the authors use a case-study approach to explore how the organization responded when faced with a crisis.

This case is suitable for undergraduate students learning organizational behavior course, strategic management and also relevant to social work courses (social entrepreneurship/NGOs).

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand the cultural and ethical dimensions revolving around the issue of female feticide; to apply the lens of institutional theory with respective change management measures; and to analyze and evaluate the impact of such intervention programs such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in the context of emerging economies such as India.

This case attempts to highlight the innovative and effective governance approach by the Government of Rajasthan (India) and, in particular, the State Health Assurance Agency to curb the menace of female feticide and the rising cases of abortion and sex determination in an attempt to favor a male child. The case concentrates on mainly three dimensions of Indian societal ecosystem, namely, the grave concern of preference of male child over female child leading to widespread cases of female feticide in different states in India with specific focus on the state of Rajasthan; the role of cultural dimension which primarily drives such preferential treatment in rural and urban areas in India; and the importance of using effective policy measures in monitoring various activities, introduction of incentive schemes to patients for preventing sex determination and promoting the birth of female child.

This case can be used as a teaching material in the Public Policy course – Social Welfare and Health Policy, Policy interventions, organization theory and change management at the Graduate/MBA level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.