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The case study is based on field research and also on secondary data. A primary survey is included in the case study. Simple frequency and factor analysis as statistical tools have been used.

Family businesses, like that of Kiran Rai’s, owning a local Mom and Pop store in an emerging city were faced with a serious problem of sustaining their businesses. These family businesses countered immense competition from: their own types, i.e. from other local Mom and Pop stores within the same cities; online stores; and the organised stores.The choice of the customers to buy goods from the neighbourhood shops has remained largely as an age-old tradition in the households. With the millennials and the Generation Z (Gen Z) exposed to an array of brands, can they become the first choice of young customers for shopping for all kinds of products and varieties? Can the local Mom and Pop stores spread their wings across the young generations, particularly the Millennials and Gen Z through inexpensive social media channels? What are their growth options? How can the social media serve this purpose? The case uses the social cognition theory and the use gratification theory to throw light on the new concept of Social Shopping.

The case is meant to be discussed in courses like Fundamentals of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Retail Marketing in a 90-min session in the Post Graduate as well as in the Working Executives’ Management programmes. The case analysis will expose the students to the use of social media and its benefits to the small businesses. The students will also be able to analyse and understand the different types of Online Consumers’ Shopping Personalities. This would enable them to strategize for different stages in the decision-making processes.

1. Analyze the factors influencing the creation of a social enterprise, while appreciating the theoretical perspectives on social entrepreneurship and social innovations. 2. Analyze the impact of social enterprises on sustainable development. 3. Recognize the need for different types of strategies in the varied situation. 4. Analyze the business model.

Shashi Kumar, the CEO of Akshayakalpa Farms & Foods Pvt Ltd (Akshayakalpa), is determined to take the business to the next growth level. He has integrated technology to measure and monitor the quality of milk and to reach out to tech-savvy customers. Owing to the preservative-free and short life of milk, he believes that redesigning the marketing and distribution strategies is the only way to ensure the massive expansion and growth that will enable Akshayakalpa to reach out to customers directly and quickly. Another issue he was facing was a lag in receivables. Their receivables from vendors were delayed and held up because of issues related to product spoilage and returns. This has posed a liquidity challenge to Akshayakalpa. Amidst all these challenges, he wants to develop the best strategy to take the business forward to the next level.

This case can be used in undergraduate or postgraduate courses in Management, Social Entrepreneurship and Business Sustainability with special relevance to social enterprise creation, enterprise growth strategies, sustainable development, sustainable business models, etc.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Marketing management, digital marketing, advertising and promotion management, and technology management.

The case is suitable for BBA and MBA students. It can also be considered in executive education programs.

Venkatesh Kothapalli, the marketing head at Reebok India headquarters at Gurgaon, was in a decision dilemma about the effectiveness of using social media marketing and its employment in the current scheme of marketing strategy being planned. He had been able to generate a fair amount of awareness and excitement amongst potential users on Reebok's social media sites. However, these often fail to convert into topline sales. In addition, Alex his superior had given clear instructions that no separate budget would be earmarked for this type of medium. So Venkatesh had to divert some parts of his existing budgets (which he did from the PR budget and the DM budget) and channel these into the new area of social media marketing. This had also created concerns in Venkatesh's mind about the possibility of the new media not showing favourable results while budgets of the traditional and tried and tested media like PR and direct marketing were being chopped.

These include: understanding the dilemma of an organization's adoption of newer marketing tools as opposed to traditional marketing practices; evaluating the role of newer mediums like social media marketing and its long term and short term relevance; understanding the origins and development of social media marketing to grasp the full scale of its usefulness; and appreciating the complexities of measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing initiatives.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: this case deliberates the strategic design and business model that provides entrepreneurial opportunities to re-sellers and small business owners; this case discusses the complexities and opportunities related to using social media (Facebook) as a selling platform; this case provides a thorough understanding of the direct-to-consumer model; this case helps students understand the concept of social commerce in emerging markets; and this case discusses brand-building tactics, particularly for online businesses.

This case is about the entrepreneurial venture of three women on Facebook. A venture that started with the simple thought of creating a trusted selling and buying platform with convenience has turned into an opportunity for thousands of other women to become entrepreneurs and start their businesses with minimum investment and low risk. Shoppers Darbar is an online shopping portal on Facebook that started in 2016. This is a private group exclusively for women with more than 165,000 registered members, which saw a boom during the pandemic and merged as a parallel platform of e-commerce retail sites and physical stores and exhibitions. Although social commerce in India is still in its growing stage, it is facing indirect competition and an identity crisis. Hence, to build Shoppers Darbar as a brand and retain vendors, founders need to find methods within Shoppers Darbar’s limited means to sustain and create a community of sellers and buyers for getting more and more business for the vendors associated with them.

Postgraduate level.

Teaching Notes Consent Letter Annexure 1.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship

The case revolves around a critical incident that took place at an Indian pharmaceutical company, in which various stakeholders had very different perspectives regarding the nature, causes and consequences of the incident. By illustrating the contrasting perceptions of the same event, the authors have shed light on the nature of perception and perceptual processes, including cognitive biases and errors in human judgement. The case provides insights into how these manifest in the organisational context and how managers could be made more aware of them to avoid errors in judgment and make choices that are more informed.

Business internationalization into emerging markets.

BA Level.

On March 23, 2014, Yves, Patrick and Pascal were on their flight back from Udaipur, India, to Zurich, Switzerland thinking about all the experiences they had during the last 12 months and especially in the last three weeks when they visited India to do the feasibility study for their water shop concept. They still had many questions that were unanswered before leaving India. Do they have the sufficient Indian contextual knowledge and expertise to run a business? Are they considering all relevant aspects to successfully establish a water shop in rural India? Have they developed the conducive mindset? Are they ready to leave their comfort zone, friends and family behind to embark on an once-in-a-lifetime adventure? Do they have enough social capital to assist them in the process of setting up the water shop? Shortly before landing at Zurich airport, Yves knew that they now either had to become serious and really spend at least a year in India to turn their concept of a water shop into reality or stay back in Europe starting with their masters studies. The case offers a true story about three BSc students that decided to evaluate whether they could implement a business opportunity that they had identified during a “Doing Business in India” course at their university and subsequently developed into a serious business case. Based on this situation, the case study offers the opportunity for students to better understand what it takes to create the right mindset (i.e. “Triple I” mindset) before actually implementing a market entry or expansion project in India.

The case focuses on teaching the “Triple I” mindset to discuss the prerequisites of a successful market entry or expansion in India: investment mindset, intercultural mindset and infrastructure mindset The case study also highlights the importance of networks and networking locally (i.e. building social capital) as a prerequisite for a successful market entry or expansion. This approach including the “Triple I” mindset, the role of social capital as well as the actual market entry or expansion project is summarized in a metaphor that we call the “Archimedes’ Screw of Internationalization”. The case study proposes to work on the following five assignment questions to drive the intended learning objectives by discussing the different prerequisites of a successful market entry or expansion in India.

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.

Service innovation, ICT-enabled services, museum, cultural and creative industries.

Graduate-level courses of “Innovation Management,” “Service Innovation,” or “Cultural and Creative Industries”.

In 2006, the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei, Taiwan, announced its new vision “Reviving the Charm of an Ancient Collection and Creating New values for Generations to Come”. In recent years, the NPM has been shifting its operational focus from being object-oriented to being public-centered, and the museum has held not only the physical forms of artifacts and documents but also their digital images and metadata. These changes would inject new life into historical artifacts. In addition, archives as its collections would be given a refreshingly new image to the public and become connected with people's daily lives. Among these endeavors for displaying historical artifacts online and prevailing Chinese culture in the modern age, the key issues are related to digital technology applications and service innovations. The service innovations would be further divided into information and communication technologies (ICT)-enabled ones and non-ICT-enabled ones. These shifts clearly claim that adopting digital technologies and innovative services can bring positive impacts to the museum. The NPM administrative team wants to keep infusing life into ancient artifacts and texts, sustaining curiosities of the public for Chinese culture and history, and invoking their interests to visit the NPM in person. However, to develop for the future while reviewing the past, the NPM administrative team has to meditate on the next steps in terms of implementation of service innovations.

Students will learn motivations of digital establishment and service innovations from the organization perspective and the necessities of technological implementation. Students will understand the difference in innovations between ICT-enabled services and non-ICT-enabled services. Students would be able to understand the process of developing a new service. Students will be aware of challenges the organization would face in developing a new service.

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

Ethical Entrepreneurship; Internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Bachelor and Master courses in International Management and Entrepreneurship.

A German medical scientist developed a product which was able to absorb alcohol in blood and consequently reduced the alcohol-level. He tested it with the participation of 170 volunteers at a private party. The product was consumed after alcohol consumption and the result was an alcohol reduction by 20-70 per cent. In addition, the volunteers had either no or only small symptoms of a hangover. The students shall discuss the different business models the medical scientist could implement by taking into account ethical issues. To give them necessary working data, the case includes European environmental data (including information about the European food industry and the functional drink market), an insight into the European legal issues of starting a business in the food segment (including definitions of “food”, “food supplement” and “health claim regulation” and how these factors impact entrepreneurial decisions), current events in the European food branch and examples of possible competitors. The case is built on a real product development and on current information and facts.

To become involved with entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurial decision-making. To debate ethical issues in the entrepreneurial process. To become aware of the complexity of internationalization in the field of SME as well as to reflect upon and sketch appropriate strategies.

Teaching note.

This case study focuses on social entrepreneurship in emerging markets, looking at what is social entrepreneurship, theories of market failure, opportunity generation through effectuation, social franchising and funding.

Students of social entrepreneurship, development studies, sustainable livelihoods and asset-based development. It is useful for customised or short programmes or for students with a background in business (e.g. Diploma in Business Administration/MBA/custom programmes) wanting to understand social enterprise and blended theories of social and economic change.

The case tells the story of Unjani container clinics which are providing affordable, quality access to people who struggle to access South Africa’s crumbling public health system. Dr Iain Barton recognised the role that nurses can play to relieve pressure on the system, by providing primary healthcare. He piloted Unjani using shipping containers as clinics with support from his company, Imperial Health Sciences. The story of Unjani is therefore one of startup and sustainable growth, partnership and building independent, self-sustaining social enterprises in a franchising system. The theory explored includes the importance of context, the role of market failure in spotting opportunity, developing opportunity through effectuation, defining social entrepreneurship and funding and growing the organisation.

The teaching objectives are framed by Mair (2010) who finds that where social entrepreneurs operate affects what they do and how they do it. Objective 1: Explores the influence of context on social entrepreneurship helping students frame a definition of social entrepreneurship. Objective 2: Students are able to connect the theory of market failure to opportunity identification and effectuation for social entrepreneurs. Objective 3: Students apply the definition of social entrepreneurship based on Santos’ (2010) Positive Theory. Objective 4: Students will be able to apply knowledge of social franchising models, as an approach to scaling. Objective 5: Students understand the principles of resource dependency theory and are able to use the funding spectrum as a tool to identify funding types.

Links to two videos are provided in the case. Recommendations are also made for materials to be used in the class, e.g. Global Competitiveness Index and Gapminder World, which are excellent tools to demonstrate the social and economic growth divide.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case uses concepts from Korten’s strategies of development-oriented four generations of non-government organizations (NGOs) and social psychology such as stereotypes, prejudices and actions to explain the social phenomenon. In furtherance, the case presents Aristotle’s approach to creating a message for masses that include use of ethos, pathos and logos. Stood’s (2017) narrative, engagement and technology (NET) model of social leadership was used to analyse the characteristics of social leaders.

Prima facie the case was developed from primary sources i.e. interviewing with Ashish Thakur. Literature from secondary sources was obtained to make teaching notes. List of references is presented towards the end that depicts the use of textbooks, research papers, websites and blogs. This case was tested in the classroom with MBA students learning business communication.

The case dealt with the challenges of an NGO that included conducting respectful last rites of unclaimed dead bodies. As the NGO grew, Ashish Thakur, the initiator of Moksh started facing resource management challenges, namely, volunteer induction, fundraising and managing non-human resources. These issues are deeply embedded in several social stereotypes about dead bodies. Learning covers strategies of four generations of NGO development, a NET model of social leadership, breaking social stereotypes related to dead bodies and last rites (necrophobia), designing social communication and opportunity to assess faulty rationalizations and do critical thinking around the socio-religious practices.

This case is intended to be used for the students of the social leadership or social entrepreneurship, social psychology, business communication or communication skills, organizational behaviour, advertising and social media.