Search results

Identify how value is created through a product-service system (PSS). Recognize the different types of PSS and their characteristics at an economic and environmental level. Design a business model for a PSS that allows to generate economic and environmental value in a sustainable way.

On October 15th of 2014, Javier Ramirez, Chief Executive Officer of Famoc Depanel, was in his office in Bogotá, Colombia, thinking about a decision he had to take. Either Famoc Depanel continued in the traditional office furniture market generating new lower-cost products, and continued facing the informal competition or the company risked accepting a new business that the National Tax and Customs Direction of Colombia (DIAN, the acronym according to its name in Spanish) had proposed and give its business a complete turnaround. Either way, he would keep his commitment to innovation and environmental care.

This case is appropriate for use in sustainability and entrepreneurship courses with contents about business models based on PSS. This case can be used at undergraduate and graduate levels. It is recommended that students have prior knowledge about business models and the Canvas Business Model methodology.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Micro Finance Institution (MFI) named Rojiroti had been doing good work for weaker sections of the society and had brought about significant transformation in the lives of poor people, especially the Scheduled Castes, in villages of Patna district, the capital city of Bihar, India. Rojiroti was run by Centre for Promoting Sustainable Livelihood (CPSL) and had tested successfully a unique innovative model in micro financing which focused on helping the weaker sections by addressing their imminent needs which usually required very small loan amounts. With the various types of benefits people got from buying government subsidized ration to health and education in family to construct home or buy small livelihood assets. The beneficiaries developed high level of respect and trust for the MFI, Rojiroti. Rojiroti had received international recognition from universities such as University of Nottingham, UK; the University was not only researching on the model and its contributions to society, but also had supported it with funding to cater to its audience. Rojiroti did not believe in just providing finance to people like other microfinance institutions (MFI) or corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding by private and public sector organizations; its model focused more on creating capacities in the beneficiaries to sustain their livelihoods. However, after a decades time, Sunil, the protagonist in the case found himself in a situation where he had to decide for the future journey of Rojiroti after having reached a decent stage of growth The case discusses the journey of Rojiroti where the protagonist Sunil had a significant role to play and dwells upon the Rojiroti business model, its beneficiaries and value offerings to them, the changing environment outside and leaves the discussion open on the question of the choice of best road suited for Rojiroti.

The case is intended for the course on Strategic Management with a focus on business models topic. The case introduces the working of social cooperative business model and the nuances around it which is very much pertinent in today’s times where social enterprises have gained space in business and where businesses work around inclusive business models. The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organization from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organisation from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

In 2008, Shaheen Mistri, founder of the nonprofit Teach For India (TFI), was grappling with applying and adapting the business and recruitment models of the successful U.S.-based Teach For America and UK-based Teach First to meet the challenges of the education sector in India. The case provides a review of the U.S.- and UK-based models, as well as an analysis of the factors that drove their growth in their respective markets. However, the adaptation of these models to create one that could succeed in the Indian context was not straightforward. The case describes a number of ways the challenges in India differ from those in the United States and United Kingdom—namely, the size and magnitude of educational inequity, the motivations of undergraduate students as potential teacher-volunteers, the part that parents play in making career decisions for their children, and the attitudes of school officials.

Students reading the case will discuss the roles of various constituencies involved in these models. After identifying how crucial constituencies are served by the U.S. and UK models, the students will then brainstorm concrete ways that these models could be adjusted for India so Mistri could successfully recruit her program's first cohort of TFI fellows

• Understand that crucial constituencies and value propositions often change as a for-profit or nonprofit business moves from one country (or part of the world) to another

• Apply the disciplines of market positioning of for-profit businesses (target market selection, frame of reference, and point of difference or superiority) to a nonprofit business

• Create value propositions for the various constituencies of a nonprofit organization, including volunteers, funders, and aid recipient

Understand that crucial constituencies and value propositions often change as a for-profit or nonprofit business moves from one country (or part of the world) to another

Apply the disciplines of market positioning of for-profit businesses (target market selection, frame of reference, and point of difference or superiority) to a nonprofit business

Create value propositions for the various constituencies of a nonprofit organization, including volunteers, funders, and aid recipient

By working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to conduct a marketing environmental analysis to aid strategic decisions; analyse the first-mover advantages of a retail firm and how these can be sustained; comprehend online retail business models and the challenges therein; understand the trade-offs of online/offline retail experiences specific to an emerging market’s beauty and personal care sector; conceptualize and formulate actionable growth strategies that balance the individual and collective requirements of brick and mortar and retail e-commerce environments.

The case is set in 2022, right after Nykaa – the pioneer of beauty and wellness e-commerce platforms in India makes a blockbuster stock market debut in 2021. Starting in 2012 with a disruptive online model for selling beauty and wellness products online in India, Nykaa had come a long way with expansions in physical retail and other segments such as fashion. The firm, which initially aimed to be a virtual store, is now thinking of aggressively expanding in the brick-and-mortar retail space as it opens its 85th retail outlet.

Falguni S. Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, wanted to roll out 300 physical stores targeting 100 cities in India in the next couple of years. She aspired to establish Nykaa as a category leader as the “Indian Sephora” in the beauty and personal care market. Nykaa’s first-mover advantage in the online beauty and personal care marketplace worked well to establish it as a brand with positive endorsements by digital shoppers that enhanced the investment potential with potential financiers. However, the pandemic had brought every physical retailer to the online platform. Most e-commerce platforms dealing in grocery to lifestyle had added personal care products to their existing merchandise.

Additionally, several start-ups had ventured into the online marketplace. Online was a cluttered marketplace with little to no differentiation. In this bloodbath, would the first-mover advantage for Nykaa in the online space still count as a competitive advantage? Nayar was all set to expand Nykaa’s physical presence aggressively. The concern was that the beauty and personal care segment had also moved online as a function of long stay-at-home periods. In the post-pandemic times, would the customer indeed revert to brick and mortar once again? Nykaa was also into product formulations, but so was every big and small player in the space. What was the differentiated winning formula for the consumer’s heart and mind?

The case can be effectively used in foundation courses in marketing and a wide range of specialized courses on marketing management (core/foundation course), retail marketing and e-commerce/digital marketing and e-commerce for B-school learners. The complex decision points faced by an innovative e-commerce start-up firm on its road to market expansion make the case suitable for niche courses such as Marketing for Start-ups. Moreover, learners in executive MBA programs with considerable experience can benefit from the case analysis that balances a growing retail company’s long- and short-run objectives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The instructor can use this for covering the concept of competitive advantage and valuation. To explore the relationship between superior profitability with business model and identify the source of competitive advantage. Determining the value of business through discounted cash flow (DCF) approach.

This case is based on the growth path of a retail chain company, DMart (Avenue Supermarket Private Limited), in the rapidly growing organized retail industry in India. It operates a unique business model that garners significant revenue growth with high profitability. The case covers the competitive advantages of DMart with respect to its peers and its valuation through the DCF model.

The case is suitable for teaching basic courses in corporate valuation and strategy at the post-graduate level. The following courses can also make use of this case: financial management, corporate finance and strategic management in emerging markets.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Marketing.

The courses in which this case can be used include e-business, e-commerce, digital marketing, retailing and marketing strategy. This case can be used to teach MBA students. This case is also having the equal relevance for the executive programmes.

AaramShop is digitizing the Grocery General Trade ecosystem. There are of millions of neighbourhood kirana stores spread across all the cities of India. AaramShop is bringing these neighbourhood kirana stores online, and making them not only e-commerce-ready but also capable of using technology to take their stores to the next level in terms of service and delivery. The case lists out the issues and challenges faced by AaramShop.

This case challenges the participants to understand the new business model in the e-commerce space. The participants can look at the different angles of the business model proposition, namely, how AaramShop approach delivers on the retailer proposition, consumer proposition and the brands proposition. The participants can also be sensitized about the obstacles in making the business model more successful. These obstacles can be posed by the retailers, consumers or brands. The case will lead to a discussion about the logistics model opportunity available to Aaramshop.com.

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 8: Marketing

After reading and discussing the case, the participant would be able to: comprehend the ethics in marketing strategies that were displayed by an entrepreneur in the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic; appreciate how the marketing was executed in a socially responsible manner through digital means when there was a conflict between the business and the social interest; and understand how the innovative services or products can be developed that turn the trouble into an opportunity. The case shall also enlighten the students on how to create suitable marketing messages in digital times. The purpose of this paper is to let the students appreciate how they can carry out marketing efforts for a business while keeping customer needs and aspirations at the core, how the marketing campaigns can be designed and executed in a socially responsible manner and how the product portfolio can be suitably altered to make it more valued to the customer. After reading and discussing this case, the students will also be able to appreciate that it is important to identify and address the customer’s pain which may be stated or unstated by the customer. The case intends to teach students how to identify and reap the opportunities that get created from time to time and to make them appreciate that businesses can contribute significantly towards societal gains by committing minimal resources.

The mainstream marketing discipline focuses on excessive consumerism as opposed to the concept of “socially responsible marketing” which advocates that business initiatives should be supported by ethical considerations. The coworking industry was one of the worst affected industries by the pandemic since their customers started working from their homes during and post the lockdowns, leading to a loss in revenues. The protagonist in the case had a strong belief that the business interests would be secondary to the overall interest of society, and therefore, he advised the customers on how they could work productively, safely and stress-free from their homes. As the lockdown was un-eased, the marketing campaigns were launched and executed in a very ethical manner, while designing innovative service offerings were designed.

The case is relevant for the students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies in the field of business and management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The case focuses on the following theoretical basis: • conflict management and its resolution; • multiculturalism and workforce diversity through the lens of Hofstede model; and • the Policies, Legal, Universal, and Self model of ethical of building an ethical organization.

Field study with the leadership team as well as with the key talent (people).

Conflictorium, situated in Ahmedabad since 2013, is a museum which acknowledges and discusses conflict through various art forms. Since its inception, the museum has fostered values like diversity, transparency and care reflecting in how it deals with its people and finances. Now, as the museum plans to reach out to new audiences, it is confronted with a challenge to preserve its cherished values and still expand its activities.

This case study is intended for graduate and postgraduate management students.

The learning outcomes of this study are to identify and discuss ways in which energy consumption in a residential educational institute can be reduced by improving demand-side energy management for sustainable development; summarise the challenges that an institute faces in transitioning to a more environmentally friendly mode of operations concerning energy management; illustrate the difference between operating expense and capital expenditure methods used for solar rooftop projects from the perspective of Goa Institute of Management (GIM); and analyse different project proposals for solar rooftop power generation energy using capital budgeting techniques.

Dr Ajit Parulekar, director at GIM, was evaluating the steps taken over the past few years for sustainable energy management to understand their impact and consider ways in which to take the environmental sustainability agenda forward. One of the projects that he was considering was the rooftop solar power plant. GIM had received proposals from several different vendors and evaluated three proposals out of these. He needed to decide on the capacity of the rooftop solar power generation and the type of contract that he should get into for the implementation of the project. This case study describes the differences and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of all the mentioned models with respect to GIM.

This case study is suitable for post-graduate level management students, as well as for undergraduate-level finance and management students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS4: Environmental management.

The use of entrepreneurship to deliver profound social impact is a much-needed but poorly understood concept. While social enterprises are generally well understood, there is a considerable need to have a more common approach to measuring the different ways they create social value for us as well as to reduce the difficulties of starting and growing them in the difficult conditions of developing countries. In the northeast of Nigeria, for example, the mammoth challenge of rebuilding communities in an unfavorable entrepreneurship environment makes the need for a solution even more urgent. This case study illustrates a model of promoting entrepreneurship that advances the conditions of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in local communities using a configuration of the key theories of social impact entrepreneurship (variants of entrepreneurship with blended value or mission orientation, including social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship). The extent to which ventures can adjust and improve the extent of their contributions to the SDGs are shown using examples of three entrepreneurs at different stages of growth. From this case study, students will be able to understand how entrepreneurs can identify and exploit social impact opportunities in the venture’s business model, within the network of primary stakeholders as well as in the wider institutional environment with the support of Impact+, a simple impact measurement praxis.

The case study envisions training students how to hardwire social impact focus in the venture’s business model (social entrepreneurship), how to run ventures with minimal harm to the environment and greatest benefit to stakeholders (sustainable entrepreneurship) and how to contribute to improving the institutional environment for social purpose entrepreneurship (institutional entrepreneurship).

At the end of learning this case study, students should be able to: 1. discover an effective model for a startup social venture; 2. explore options for managing a venture sustainably and helping stakeholders out of poverty; and 3. identify ways to contribute to improving the institutional environment for social impact entrepreneurs.

For students, this case will help in educating them on a pragmatic approach to designing social impact ventures – one that calibrates where they are on well-differentiated scales.

For business schools, entrepreneurial development institutions and policymakers, this case study can help them learn how to target entrepreneurial development for specific development outcomes.

The case study is preferably for early-stage postgraduate students (MSc or MBA).

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.