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Research for the case study was conducted using a combination of semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources.

This case traces the international expansion of Sadowsky Guitars’ bass guitar product line. Roger Sadowsky is one of the most respected instrument makers in the world and gained early acclaim for his outstanding repair and restoration work on guitars and basses. Some of his early clients included Prince, Will Lee (The Tonight Show), Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, Jason Newsted of Metallica, Eddie Van Halen and Marcus Miller. Roger’s reputation and the demand for his instruments led to some customers having to wait for more than a year to obtain the chance to purchase a Sadowsky instrument, while others were unable to do so due to financial constraints. In 2003, Roger made the decision to form Sadowsky Japan to begin the contract manufacturing of more affordable Sadowsky instruments in Tokyo, Japan. As the company grew in size, Roger realized he was becoming more focused on running a business than building instruments. Furthermore, his Japanese partners were only interested in serving the Japanese market. This required him to handle the sales and distribution in the remaining parts of the world. In December of 2019, he announced a new, exclusive licensing agreement and distribution partnership between Sadowsky Guitars and Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG. The new agreement allowed Roger to continue running the Sadowsky NYC Custom Shop while Warwick would take over building and distributing the Metro instruments and a less-expensive, Chinese-built version of the MetroExpress instruments.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate-level courses related to marketing and consumer behavior. The case walks students through a real-life scenario when the founder of a well-known musical brand sought to expand internationally as a way to meet growing market demand. Students are asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the five key international market entry strategies: exporting, licensing, contract manufacturing, joint ventures and investment (equity/acquisition).

The case works well in the classroom, even if people are unfamiliar with the musical instrument retail industry. Participants are most likely aware of some of the artists and musicians mentioned in the case. Some may also be or know musicians. The instructor should be able to quickly engage participants in a lively discussion about Roger Sadowsky’s vision for his instruments and the opportunities and challenges of expanding product offerings and increasing market share.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

The rapid advancement of technology has transformed the health-care industry and enabled the emergence of m-Health solutions such as health apps. The viability and success of these apps depends on the definition of a monetization model appropriate to their specificities. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to study the mechanisms of monetization of health apps, to stablish how alternative revenues determine if a health app is to be free or paid.

Probability models are used to identify the factors that explain if a health app is free or paid.

Results show that the presence of alternative monetization mechanisms negatively impacts the likelihood of a health app being paid for. The use of personal data to customize advertising (the monetization of “privacy capital”) or the inclusion of ads on the app are alternative means of monetization with potential to decrease the likelihood of a health app being paid for. The possibility of in-app purchases has a lower negative impact on the probability of a health app being paid for. The choice of platform to commercialize an app is also a strategic decision that influences the likelihood of an app being paid for.

This work stands out for bringing together the two largest platforms present in Portugal and for focusing on the perspective of revenue and monetization of health apps and not on the perspective of downloads.

With the growth in online purchasing, the return of distressed shipments also increased. The return experience of the online shopper has a huge impact on their next purchase decision-making. This explanatory research aims to identify and empirically explain factors related to the online buyer’s return experience that influence the repurchase intention of young buyers.

Primary data were collected from 235 active online young buyers who have experienced returning the goods through a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling is used for analyzing the data.

This study reveals that an online return policy leniency strongly supports service recovery quality, expected return convenience, buyer trust and satisfaction, which lead to repurchase intentions. Moreover, return satisfaction positively impacts repurchase intention while mediating young buyer trust.

This study is one of the few relevant pieces of research that would benefit e-tailers to improve their product return policy and compel young buyers’ intention to make a repeat purchase.

The effect of dynamic capabilities on operational excellence and the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between operational excellence and dynamic capabilities in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka were investigated while developing new psychometric scales to assess operational excellence and dynamic capacities constructs.

We followed the exploratory sequential research design with a mixed-method research approach, aligning with the pragmatic research philosophy. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were followed.

Dynamic capabilities positively affect operational excellence, and environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between operational excellence and dynamic capabilities in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka such that when a higher environmental dynamism exists, a weaker positive relationship exists between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence. The two main dimensions of the operational excellence construct are continuous improvement of sustainable operational performance and sustainable competitive advantages. It empirically confirmed that sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities are the three main dimensions of the dynamic capabilities construct.

This study was limited to the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. This research phenomenon should be explored in other industrial sectors worldwide to generalize the findings. The practitioners in the apparel sector may improve the organizational dynamic capabilities to achieve operational excellence and keep a strong positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence in a highly dynamic environment if they address out-of-family situations with out-of-the-box thinking.

We generated two new empirical findings: (1) dynamic capabilities positively affect operational excellence, and (2) environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and operational excellence. Also, we introduced validated new scales for assessing operational excellence and dynamic capabilities.