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Management of technology, technological innovation, business innovation and new product development, innovation, design and strategy, entrepreneurship innovation and leadership strategic planning of technological innovation.

MBA.

KidZania® is a Mexican company of family entertainment centers, founded in 1996 by Luis Javier Laresgoiti Fernández and fully developed by Xavier López Ancona. An innovative concept inspired in a fusion of nursery and theme park, KidZania®, brings together strong brands as partners to support their own and offer a complete entertainment and educational experience to kids between two and 16 years old. A unique business model, involvement of experts and a committed board of directors has been the key to the innovation of KidZania®. Its managers, by 2011, operate eight centers – two in Mexico, two in Japan and the rest in Indonesia, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and South Korea – and have plans to expand to more countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe in 2011 and finally to the USA. The future of KidZania® seemed bright, and the manager of the company believed that the growth appeared unstoppable because the purpose was to grow on 100 percent. The strategy appeared clear: dominate in the emerging and consolidated markets (big cities) in order to strengthen its competitive position and then, enter the US market with all the muscle and take the lead in the biggest market. But what was the competition going to do about it? What will the moves be for big players like Walt Disney – which had revenues of US$38.06 billion (USSEC, 2010), for example? Will the competitors try to buy the new entrant in order to build it up or to disappear it? Or will they try to imitate KidZania®? What would be the future of this new edutainment business model?

This case has been used in executive and MBA courses in creating and sustaining innovation, recognizing disruptive technologies, and in identifying effective methods of marketing a new innovative business model. Instructors can use the case to achieve the following two learning objectives: the KidZania® case helps students to refine their understanding of the model of disruption. They are forced to look closely at the product/service and decide whether it is a disruptive innovation or a sustaining innovation. This close examination becomes a helpful tool as students think about what decisions they would make to secure the success of the KidZania® in the entertainment market. The KidZania® case allows students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of the model “skating to where the money is”. Based on their analysis of the company and product students, must decide whether the KidZania® is a business that will produce sustained revenue and is worth investing in.

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

The case is particularly well suited to entrepreneurship, marketing, technology, innovation, or strategy courses.

This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate students in management or business programmes.

This case follows the Kenyan healthcare tech company Savannah Informatics as they contemplate how the company will continue to grow in a post-pandemic world. Savannah is the market leader in electronic claims validation solutions for the Kenyan healthcare system. Their flagship product, the digital platform Slade 360, allows health insurers, healthcare providers, and patients to share claims information for health services in real time, drastically reducing payment transfer times, incidents of fraud, and account errors. The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown mandates from the Kenyan government have reduced short-term revenues by driving down hospital visits for citizens overall, but they have also created a demand for telemedicine and more online healthcare solutions. CEO John Muthee and his co-founders are left to consider their options for growing Savannah Informatics: expanding into new markets, creating more solutions for their insurance and provider customers in Kenya, or diversifying.

Identify the key challenges facing Savannah

Analyse the organisation using the 5Cs model (company, customers, competitors, collaborators and context) and VRIO (value, rarity, imitability, and organisation) analysis

Assess the growth opportunities available to Savannah and make recommendations

Through this case, students will not only learn about the latest development of this emerging industry, IoT, but also gain a systematic understanding of “ecosystem strategy” and get to know a new corporate growth model called “co-creation”.

This case describes why and how Advantech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Advantech) has transformed in the age of the Internet of Things. Aware of the ecosystem attributes of the IoT industry and committed to the company’s principle of “altruism”, Advantech strategically positioned itself as an “IoT platform provider” and an “enabler” for IoT applications. After carrying out a reform in terms of internal management, external cooperation, and development model, Advantech has evolved from an industrial computer maker to an IoT solution provider. Since the launch of the “co-creation model” at the end of 2016, Advantech has drawn attention from many excellent companies in traditional industries. With the Internet of Everything close at hand, Chairman KC Liu is well aware there are many challenges to overcome as Advantech strives to build an industrial IoT ecosystem, the “evolution” continues.

MBAs, EMBAs and senior executives.

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

Human resource development/management and change management.

The case is suitable for final year undergraduate human resource development/management or specialist HRM Master's programs (strategic HRM/HRD).

The case study highlights the challenges of managing change and growth in India's dynamic business process outsourcing sector. The choice of a large and complex organisation brings to the fore the complexity of decision making and how various factors shape the development of critical organisational capabilities and training provision.

Depending on the level of the class and the emphasis, one or more of the following learning outcomes can be achieved from this case study. Following thecase analysis, students should be able to: discuss the key challenges faced by BPOLAND; identify and analyse the various influences of internal and external factors on training provision; understand the importance of forging partnerships with key functional groups for shaping training and organisational capabilities; analyse the dynamic interactions between the various factors and training provision; analyse the relationship between BPOLAND's competitive strategy and its training choices (make versus buy); evaluate the role of training in developing organisational capabilities; and strategise a way forward for the person responsible for learning and development.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

Pebble Technology Corporation (Pebble) was an early entrant into the smartwatch industry. Pebble’s Founder, Eric Migicovsky, began thinking about creating a smartwatch in 2008 while still an undergraduate engineering student. After selling about 1,500 prototype watches, he was accepted into Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y Combinator business start-up program. Finding it difficult to attract investors, Migicovsky launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised a record-breaking $10.27m on Kickstarter. The case concludes shortly after Apple’s unveiling of its soon-to-be-released Apple Watch. The case provides an opportunity to evaluate Pebble’s various strategic options at the time of Apple’s announcement.

The authors observed over 30 h of video and audio recordings of speeches, interviews and other events involving Pebble’s founder, other Pebble executives, investors and competitors. These recordings are all publicly available. Whenever possible, the authors also reviewed the Twitter feeds, Facebook sites and personal websites of Pebble’s top executives over time. Similarly, the authors followed Pebble’s official website, corporate blog and Kickstarter campaign websites. The authors also drew from numerous media reports. Due to the public nature of the data, no company release is provided nor has any information been disguised in any way.

The case is designed for both undergraduate and graduate students for courses in strategic management.

Illinois Superconductor Corp. a technology start-up, came up with an innovative new superconducting filter for use in cellular base stations. It needed to estimate the demand for its filters. The manager came up with a simple chain-ratio-based forecasting model that, while simple and intuitive, was too simplistic. The company had also commissioned a research firm to develop a model-based forecast. The model-based forecast used diffusion modeling, analogy-based forecasting, and conjoint analysis to create a forecast that incorporated customer preferences, diffusion effects, and competitive dynamics.

To use the data to generate a model-based forecast and to reconcile the model-based forecast with the manager's forecast. Requires sophisticated spreadsheet modeling and the application of advanced forecasting techniques.

Competing in Emerging Markets; Internationalization of Service Firms; Global Marketing.

Senior undergraduate or graduate students in business schools.

Uber first entered the South Korean taxi hailing service in Seoul in September 2013. In March 2015, the company shut down its operations after being charged for operating an illegal service. However, in January 2016, Uber decided to re-launch Uber’s premium service, UberBLACK after working with the city government. Given the country’s unique characteristics, was the decision to re-enter the market justifiable? Would Uber’s new strategies including partnering with a local company be sufficient? How could Uber gain more market share against its local powerful competitors?

Outcomes This case allows students to understand the challenges of internationalizing services of a global company in an emerging market that has strong national cultures and domestic preferences. The students will learn how to analyze the country and industry external environment as well as internal resources and capabilities to formulate the appropriate market entry strategies and to effectively implement them. The students will also learn the critical role of host country government and how to manage its relationship, the first- and second-mover advantages/disadvantages and the sustainability of innovative business models.

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

In March 2017, Oded Golan sat in his technology startup's conference room with his co-founder, pondering the fate of their company, Start A Fire. In just four years, the two entrepreneurs had taken an idea that started in Golan's apartment in Tel Aviv and turned it into a company that had raised $3.5 million in venture capital funding and served more than 3,000 of the world's biggest brands using an innovative content distribution and social media management platform that enabled brands to improve communication and engagement with their followers

Founded in 2004, OPPO has experienced the boom of the Chinese mobile phone market, the trend of mobile Internet and the prosperity of the smartphone market. While adjusting its business structure based on changes in the market environment, it has transitioned itself from an audio device manufacturer to a smart-phone manufacturer that offers hardware, software, and service.

This case study focuses on OPPO's evolution and strategy, and provides an insight into its history, competition, and strategic choices based on whether or not OPPO should release a feature phone with a foldable display at the MWC 2019, and discusses the core competitiveness that helped OPPO succeed against the market downturn. This case study helps students understand the development of corporate strategies and the process of building core competitiveness in the microcompetition in the red ocean market. We also wish to help students understand how to come up with the most appropriate decision-making framework and conduct a critical analysis on the issues based on the internal and external factors of their businesses while they make strategic decisions. When it comes to different dimensions and indicators coming to contradictory conclusions in particular, what should the manager of a business do to make the correct strategic decision?

New product development and introduction, Marketing.

The case is suitable for post-graduate students in management, or in their final year. The case is intended for those business school students who are familiar with the basics of marketing management and are going through a course on new product development. The level of difficulty for post-graduate management students as far as this case is concerned is medium to high. The case can be a part of the following courses in marketing; new product marketing; technology marketing; brand management (how to build a technology brand).

The case concerns a computing technology company – Novatium Solutions – that has developed a new product, an affordable computing system, and is looking at ways of marketing it. The product offering in the initial stages is just hardware with limited local processing abilities that needs to be connected through a wire to a telecom broadband player to provide the internet browsing facility. As the case progresses, the product evolves into upgraded and newer formats. The theme of the case is intended to be new product marketing in a technology sector.

The following will be the learning outcomes for this case; new product process and marketing in a technology company (compared to non technology consumer product company); bringing customer orientation to a product technology company; the role of a marketing head in a new product company; and building a retail brand for an affordable technology product.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your Librarian for access. The teaching notes provide adequate questions and answers (four assignment questions and three class discussion questions) so that faculty members need not look beyond these to give student projects or assignments.