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This case describes the financial and non-financial performance of Starbucks, a large organisation provided as on 2007. Howard Schultz, the promoter and chairman of the corporation is disturbed by the decline in the performance of Starbucks, especially the dilution of customer experience. He is required to analyse what happened and adopt a course of action to strengthen Starbucks' performance vis a vis competitive attacks. The participants are required to analyse the situation, generate options for Starbucks and make recommendations for the future, including whether Jim Donald, the current incubent, needs to retained as the CEO of Starbucks.

Strategic management.

Upper-level undergraduate courses or introductory MBA courses.

The need to diversify the financial risks of his scrap metal business based in Georgia led Levan to invest in a diamond trading company in the UAE. He agreed to be a sleeping partner and provide the capital to Kewon, a diamond specialist with a wealth of experience in the field, in their joint attempt to build an international network of diamond trade. Despite several difficulties faced on the way, their company seemed to generate stable returns for more than five years. Yet following the surprising discovery of multiple organizational inconsistencies, Levan decided to end the partnership with Kewon and establish his own retail jewelry store to be managed by the members of his family. Ultimately, he was confronted with two important decisions regarding both his jewelry business and the diamond company in which he had previously invested a significant amount of capital. The decisions he was about to make were of critical importance for the future of these companies and the people who managed them. By walking readers through a series of triggering events, this case offers the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of managerial actions through the application of various strategic management tools and frameworks.

Upon completion of this case study analysis, students should be able to: estimate the complexities associated with the management of a partnership-based venture in the context of emerging markets; perform a detailed diagnosis of an entrepreneurial venture, applying relevant strategic management tools and techniques; evaluate the effectiveness of managerial actions and decisions at different stages of the organizational lifecycle; and demonstrate the importance of the strategic adaptation of organizations through the deployment of viable decision-making skills.

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.

This case features Stripe, a startup that enables merchants to accept payments from customers on the web, on mobile devices, and at the point of sale (POS). Stripe was launched in 2011 by the Collison brothers and quickly gained traction with e-commerce startups, particularly software and platform developers who needed help building their payment processing infrastructures. Stripe incurred high fixed costs in developing its platform and had low margins per transaction, so the company needed to reach high processing volumes (i.e., scale) to survive. This was challenging, as Stripe competed with large payment processors and traditional banks that had high processing volumes and were able to offer merchants significantly lower rates than Stripe. Still, merchants valued Stripe#x0027;s solution because it was simple and versatile. Students assume the role of the Collisons to think about possible strategies Stripe could pursue to process higher volumes of transactions. Students are challenged to think about the potential response of the incumbents to Stripe's different growth alternatives. The teaching note presents the Value Net framework and discusses the importance of considering complementors and their effect on a firm's strategy. Finally, a discussion about Stripe's potential entry into the Indian market allows students to apply the concepts they learned in the discussion of a new market.

The case is suitable for use in the topics related to the functions and roles of hedging and the Islamic derivatives/hedging instruments.

The case is designed for undergraduate students, taking courses in Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance and Risk Management for Islamic Banking Institutions.

This case describes the theory and application of Islamic Cross Currency Swap (ICCS) in the market. Having this understanding enables case analysts to understand the functions and roles of hedging and the Islamic derivatives or hedging instruments of ICCS comprehensively. The case begins with Yusof, the new finance officer of Al-Yemeni Sdn. Bhd to analyse the permissibility of hedging and derivatives to hedge against currency fluctuations from Islamic perspective. Yusof had to complete the report before the Board of Director's quarterly meeting, which was within a week. Having in mind that the company's mission was to be a Shariah-compliant stock by 2012, Yusof was responsible for ensuring that the company was administrated in an Islamic way. Besides, he also had to ensure that the company generated income and profit as planned. In doing so, he had to strategise all possible risk exposures that could be mitigated or hedged. This case ends by giving the case analyst information on ICCS offered by Al-Rizky Bank Berhad (ARBB). In this case, Yusof had to find out whether hedging is allowed in Islam. What are the Islamic derivatives? What are the different views of Shariah scholars on various types of derivatives? What is the modus operandi of ICCS? Is the ICCS offered by ARBB Shariah compliant? What are the possible risk exposures being hedged in ICCS?

To provide exposure on the concepts of hedging from Islamic perspectives; to provide exposure on the concepts of Islamic derivatives/Islamic hedging instruments; to stimulate understanding on the modus operandi of ICCS in ARBB; and to help case analysts understand what makes the Islamic hedging instruments become Shariah compliant.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

At the end of the case, a successful learner will be able to:▪ develop sound criteria to guide investors entering into hotel management agreements (HMAs);▪ reconcile principal and agent disputes through the lens of an agency framework; and▪ evaluate the impact of the work environment on employee and organisational outcomes.

Muyiwa, Chairman of Fara Ltd., signed a HMA with Aytello Hotel Group to operate his hotel in Nigeria, the Mélange Abuja. Aytello was an international hotel management company based in the USA. It was a renowned operator with several brands in its portfolio. The Mélange brand was contemporary, upscale and targeted young business guests with an appetite for adventure. It was the first Mélange to have opened in West Africa. A management agreement was signed in August 2016, which meant that Aytello was now responsible for operating the hotel on behalf of its Owner, Muyiwa. On his part, Muyiwa provided the funds needed to run the hotel profitably. However, soon after the opening, the operator and owner showed signs of conflict. Muyiwa began to distrust the operator and intervened directly in operations. The frequent clashes between Muyiwa and the operator soon led to an impasse that made productive dialogue difficult. As relationships soured, Muyiwa needed to make a decision soon. This case study is designed to teach agency relationships in organisational behaviour.

This case study is designed for business leaders on executive programmes and postgraduate students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

The case describes the evolution of Bangladesh's garment industry, the second largest garment exporter in the world, and its operational problems. The focus is on the fire that occurred on November 24, 2012 at Tazreen Fashions, a unit that is a part of a global supply chain for US and European retailers. The case explores the role of the government, western retailers, industry association and NGOs subsequent to the fire, and shows how increasing CSR expectations of corporations are making them take on responsibility for what should be that of the government or the garment unit.

Secondary sources; published materials.

International Business, Business and Society, Supply Chain Management, Doing Business in Emerging Markets.

Corporate social responsibility stakeholder theory market entry.

This case is based on an in-depth interview with Sean Ansett on March 6, 2020 in San Francisco. For a good reference book on the interview method in social science, please see Seidman (2019). Ansett is an alumnus of the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. A follow-up interview was conducted on December 13, 2021, via Zoom. The case situations are factual, but the names of the luxury brand, the factory and the Tunisian social auditing firm were disguised. Selected video clips of the interviews are available upon request.

In 2010, Sean Ansett, a social auditor with more than 25 years of experience in promoting workers’ rights in the global supply chain, faced a momentous decision. He was hired by a luxury brand company to conduct a social audit of a Tunisian leather goods factory. During his visit to the factory, he observed the troubling signs of child labor and alarming health and safety concerns in the work environment. Should he report the factory’s situation to the local authority? What should he advise his client, the luxury brand company, to do? Ansett realized that this was not a cut-and-dried decision as reporting to the local authority may affect workers adversely if the factory was closed. This case highlights the ethical dilemmas of human rights in the global supply chain. It also raises critical questions for multinational firms regarding what constitutes an ethical brand and how to ensure effective code of conduct implementation.

This case can be used in undergraduate or graduate business courses or curated sessions and seminars related to corporate social responsibility, ethics and social auditing in supply chain management.

This case presents a problem with competing in the Chinese market faced by Jeff Hotchkiss in early 2000s, then President of the Assembly Test Division (ATD) at Teradyne. Teradyne is the world’s largest producer of automatic test equipment for electronic assembly on production lines. Hotchkiss needed to find a solution to prevent ATD from continued loss of market share in equipment sales and loss of service revenue in China. Various factors to be considered include customer differentiation and service supply chain configuration.

This case is a field researched case. The research team met with Teradyne’s division president and top management team, and was given access to the documents including customer feedback.

Graduate or undergraduate: operations management, supply chain management.

Bryan Preston, CEO of the Back Office Cooperative, leads several large human service providers through the process of building a shared-services platform to leverage scale and efficiencies. This successful collaboration matches the business case for restructuring against the constraints of mission-driven enterprises.

The case seeks to demonstrate how collaboration, scalability, and leadership interact in a nonprofit organization to produce desirable outcomes from which other organizations, leaders, and resource providers might learn.

Discusses the challenges that internal departments face as organizations grow and expand. The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, grew significantly over a short period of time, creating considerable problems in the finance department, as staff and systems failed to keep pace with the evolving demands placed by the museum departments. These problems resulted in outdated policies and procedures, unhappy users, and frustrated employees. The finance department needed big changes but had to make them while maintaining vital functions, improving morale, and instituting new policies and procedures. Discusses several key nonprofit management issues, including change management, the role of leadership in a crisis, the challenge of informal personnel networks and knowledge management, and key financial issues facing nonprofit organizations.