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The learning outcome of this paper is to identify and interpret the risks linked to cyber-security and their impact on the organization. Analyze business management regarding cyber-security and information technology (IT) risk management. Evaluate and propose decision-making strategies for IT projects.

Silver Bank is a financial entity with broad national coverage. Its growth was directly related to its investments in customer service. The entire organization is focused on satisfying its clients’ needs, improving their experience and making them loyal to the company. However, it did not pay enough attention to a threat that, with time, had become more pronounced: cyber-attacks. Its efforts to fight against this threat were only temporary solutions, as gaps in its IT system made it an easy target for criminals until the arrival of Iván Ramírez, who proposes a holistic solution to decrease the probability and severity of these attacks. However, past experiences, ignorance and budget constraints make it a difficult task to convince the bank’s board of directors to implement the proposed solution.

The case can be used as teaching material in upper-level undergraduate and graduate management courses: –undergraduate courses: information technology management, IT project analysis and management – MBA or graduate courses: information technology management, strategic management and security governance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

In 2015, Toyota proposed to issue a separate class of shares to attract long term individual Japanese shareholders aligned with the company's long-term R&D programmes. The distinguishing feature of these shares was the exit option with no loss of capital. The proposal was not received well by US based institutional shareholders of the company and proxy. A major proxy adviser recommended voting against the proposal. The case provides an opportunity to discuss security design issues and their implications for corporate governance.

The case highlights a $1.4 billion fraud committed by the founder of a NYSE listed, Information Technology Services firm in India. In response to the crisis, the Indian government appointed an interim board to find a strategic investor in the company. The case traces the events leading to the fall of the company. Students are asked to analyze the governance and intermediation failures, assess the financial position of the company and to estimate the intrinsic value of the company from an acquirer's perspective.

HSBC (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) Holdings Plc. is a part of various trade finance consortia which aimed to digitise the traditional paper-based trade finance process. It had successfully executed multiple trade finance pilots using a blockchain based platform Voltron and was launching its Contour blockchain trade finance platform as a service to its clients. The trade finance market was estimated to be USD 18 trillion on an annual basis and HSBC had a 12% share in the trade finance transactions worldwide. This case revolves around the challenges facing banks/consortia while porting the traditional trade finance process to the blockchain based system. The crux is how the banks form the consortia, implement blockchain and facilitate trading globally given that it is a new technology and will require bringing all the stakeholders involved in the trade finance value chain to the blockchain based platform. HSBC is facing some decision questions on the formation, governance and management of the consortium, on the interoperability between consortia and on how to price its services to its customers.

International business and strategy, strategies in emerging markets.

This case can be used in undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses in international business, strategy management and strategies in emerging markets. Further, the case may also be useful to teach sub-topics such as fit between external opportunities and internal strengths (resources and capabilities) and new business model challenges.

Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (hereafter referred as RBEI) had been chosen by the Management of Bosch in India to engage in the Government of India (GoI) Smart City Business Opportunity. Dhiraj Wali, Vice President RBEI and the present head of RBEI Smart City Projects (RBEI/SCP) over the past few years had been prospecting the non-Bosch clients especially the GoI clients for RBEI. He understood the implications of this big-ticket business opportunity for RBEI. At the same time, he was worried about the complications involved in such large projects, how should RBEI position itself to make the most of this significant business opportunity?

The dynamics and internal challenges of an established captive division of a multinational (i.e. Bosch) venturing into business transactions with non-captive (i.e. non-Bosch) especially government sector clients. The new business opportunities facing a multinational in emerging markets such as India. Understanding the GoI Smart City Mission and its big-ticket business opportunity. To show how the captive units of MNC evolve over the years of operation leveraging, the competencies gained to succeed in the marketplace. The reasons for this range from internal needs to increase the gains from the past investments to exploiting the external business prospects available resulting in both new opportunities for specialization and customers.

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 5: International Business.

Roger Cagle, the co-founder and deputy CEO of SOCO International, watched the dreary London rain outside his office window one February morning in 2015. Never had SOCO, the oil-and-gas exploration and production player that ranked among Britain’s top 200 companies, experienced such a public backlash against its operations. For nearly 20 years, Cagle had helped steer his company’s projects around the world—often in volatile regions where others feared to tread, such as Vietnam, Russia, and Yemen—while delivering significant returns to investors. But the international uproar surrounding SOCO during the past year had been nothing short of mind-boggling.

This case presents some of the entrepreneurial challenges faced by a female leader in the technology sector who conceived a new product based on her passion to help others especially those most disadvantaged.

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to prepare supply chain and distribution analysis that considers ethics and sustainability, integrate philanthropic efforts as part of an organizational strategy and recognize strategies to promote equity within and beyond an organization.

Connie Stacey (she/her) is an entrepreneur and president of Growing Greener Innovations, an award-winning battery energy storage company based in Alberta, Canada, with a mission to end energy poverty globally. With the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic in 2020, Stacey turned her attention to an innovation called Project Rescue, a ventilator that uses non-identifying patient vitals to track data. It serves as a pandemic early warning system, addressing two key challenges: pandemic data are prone to error, and real-time information is non-existent after the pandemic has spread. This new product was conceived based on her passion to help others, especially those most disadvantaged. This multi-faceted case focuses on the many challenges that Stacey and her team needed to address. The dilemma in this case centres on establishing supply chains amid a pandemic, as well as prioritizing the corporate social responsibility elements of philanthropy and equity within her organization (and beyond).

This case is appropriate for third- or fourth-year undergraduate or graduate-level students.

In addition to “call out boxes” throughout the case and teaching note, additional readings/links/videos are outlined below. (These supplementary materials, “Teaching Tips”, are included in the teaching notes as well.)

CCS 11: Strategy.

Information technology, management science and strategic management.

The case has been developed for use in “e-government Management and Leadership” and “Strategic IT management” courses and is appropriate for MBA and Executive Development Programs, as well as corporate training programs incorporating information system and e-government dilemmas. The case is appropriate for courses that deal with e-government development.

Ajman Digital Government (ADG) was established in 2017. It is a new government entity intended to deliver the Ajman e-Government Project to increase government efficiency and productivity, as well as transforming public services to meet citizen expectations of digital experiences and satisfying the UAE Federal e-government standard. The current UAE federal e-government ranking includes only two emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. ADG intends to be part of the UAE federal e-government ranking and participating in the world digital competitiveness ranking. Many challenges lie ahead for ADG, which intends to add Ajman’s e-government to UAE’s federal e-government, supporting the digital competitiveness of UAE worldwide and participating in increasing the ranking for UAE federal government in IMD’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking; in addition to this challenging goal, there are significant new obstacles to the implementation of the new digital government in Ajman. ADG requires specific ingredients for the maintenance and support of the UAE e-government standard to position the project toward the success. Study of the strategic positioning of ADG would help support success of the development of e-government and weigh which technology should be used and how the project should proceed strategically. The case also provides a very useful ground for discussing all challenges faced and how the innovative business model of e-government will address these issues and create a sustainable e-government environment.

The case is structured to achieve the following learning objectives: Students can recognise the dilemma faced by the Ajman Government in managing citizen expectations, stakeholder expectations and the wider implications of its actions on developing a coherent communication strategy. Students can recognise and critically evaluate the role of leadership and communication in using e-government strategies in hyper technology market. To bring out the challenges in the digital government and repositioning strategies in a highly competitive and dynamic technology environment. Differentiation and repositioning strategies in a highly competitive technology market. Learn how to effectively communicate the value of a digital government to the targeted citizens. Understand how to strike a balance between short-term objectives and long-term goals in e-government development. Analyse the environment, competition, industry and IT product positioning. List alternative IT strategies and e-government positioning. Understand the primary drivers of interaction in e-government.

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 7: Management Science.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings, company press releases and Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In June 2020, former Pinterest employees made public charges of gender and racial discrimination. Despite changes implemented by the company, several Pinterest shareholders filed derivative lawsuits charging the company with breach of fiduciary duty, waste of corporate assets, abuse of control and violating federal securities laws. The case provides an overview of the company’s management, board and stock structures, as well as information on the shareholders who sued the company and their concerns. The case raises substantial questions about management’s and board member’s responsibilities in corporate governance, illustrates how stock structures can be used to impede governance and suggests ways to evaluate activist shareholders.

This case is appropriate for graduate, advanced undergraduate or executive education courses in strategy, corporate governance or strategic human resources that discuss corporate governance, fiduciary responsibilities, designing workplace culture or management responses to shareholders. Instructors can apply two sets of theories and frameworks to this case: theories of corporate governance and Hirschman’s (1970) exit, voice or loyalty framework in the context of shareholder activism.

The learning objectives (or expected learning objectives and outcomes) are to be achieved by linking them with particular concepts, theories and models. These include conducting a situational analysis of the social business, namely, Lilly Apartments’ Welfare Association; explaining the characteristics and mindset of the leadership, particularly the social entrepreneurial leaders; analysing the conflict among the team members; and designing strategic solutions for combating crises and attaining operations’ effectiveness.

Lilly Apartments’ Welfare Association Karachi was registered under the Act of 1860 of the Government of Pakistan. The members established this Association to oversee the affairs of the maintenance of the apartments, including the provision of utilities, particularly water, sanitation, lifts, generators, parking, security and a park with a small play area for children. The front-burner issue of the Association consisted of mis-governance (causing underperformance), including maintenance of buildings within apartments; recovery of funds from the past executive committee (EC) members due to their massive corruption; managing defaulters’ issues (i.e., the members who did not pay their monthly maintenance fees) and deficiency of funds; inefficient and corrupt practices of the majority of the employees, including one manager and two supervisors; and task-related and personal conflicts between the leadership members. The EC of the Association was elected every year and presently it had only four months left. The research design used for this case study involved conducting 12 interviews, four each involving EC members, former EC members and senior residents, which were analysed to learn the challenges and achievements of the Association. Moreover, pertinent records of the Association were reviewed. The canons of research ethics and soundness were applied.

This case study is suitable for the students of social entrepreneurship or strategy or strategy and leadership. The study level is for graduates in management science, including MBA and EMBA students. This case study is suitable for teaching at any point but ideally near the middle or end of the aforementioned courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.