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This case followed Todd Duncan, Chairman of Duncan Aviation, as he considered which international locations Europe, Latin America, or Asia were most important in positioning Duncan to benefit from continued internationalization of the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industry. The company had the option to hire Regional Managers to actively manage these areas, recruiting new customers and building relationships with existing ones. The case provides students with an opportunity to identify the core competencies of a company, and to recognize ways in which employee engagement contributes to Duncan's core competencies. Optionally, the case may be used to introduce students to Dunning's eclectic paradigm.

The research for this case was obtained from a combination of primary research, secondary research, and personal experiences. One of the research assistants for this case was employed at the company for over two years, and reflections thus obtained, supported with supplementary research, enriched and deepened the paper. Duncan's Debrief magazine and news releases were important secondary sources, in addition to industry web sites, industry journal articles, reference books, and newspaper articles.

This case is intended to be taught in undergraduate international business or marketing courses.

This case is an illustration of the complexity, and strategic importance, of considering whether, and how, to build customer relationships outside the firm's home country. Such decisions confront many companies facing increasingly global industry environments. The eclectic paradigm, developed by John Dunning, explains why companies expand and participate in international markets.

International Strategy

Undergraduate or graduate capstone course in strategy or international management course.

Faced with increased competition at home, Sainsbury's decided to expand its international operations by entering Egypt. Sainsbury's initially created a joint venture with an Egyptian food retailer, but quickly increased its commitment by opening over 100 stores in Egypt. Sainsbury's dream of capturing the Egyptian food market faded as quickly as it was started. Due to declining profits, Sainsbury's eliminated its exposure in Egypt by selling its interests to its Egyptian partner. Sainsbury's first developing-country venture could be regarded as an object lesson in how not to operate. The company failed to properly investigate its market and its partners, and showed insensitivity to local conditions. Moreover, entering the Egyptian consumer business sector may have been ill-advised. Egypt, with a low gross domestic product (GDP) per head of about $1,300 and a population of 65 million, while having growth potential, is a daunting market. Why a poor and frequently disorganized country was perceived as having excellent growth potential was not addressed by Sainsbury's in its headlong rush to invest. The case should be interesting for students because it highlights a situation where a firm's international expansion efforts failed after the firm had success expanding internationally previously. Numerous reasons are presented in the case for Sainsbury's failure. The case highlights the multiplicity of issues which a company faces when it “goes global.” While Sainsbury's withdrew from Egypt, the case affords students the opportunity to evaluate whether they would have made the same decision by providing a discussion of the alternatives suggested by Sainsbury's Chairman.

The Sainsbury's case is capable of addressing several important teaching objectives: the case is an appropriate vehicle to demonstrate what can happen to a firm as it expands globally; students will gain more knowledge concerning why companies expand into foreign markets and the impact of cross-country differences in market conditions; the case presents the multifaceted complexities involved in globalization efforts and issues faced by companies concerned with global competition and global strategy; students should apply the concepts and tools of industry and competitive analysis; students should gain a better understand how to manage globally; students should gain an understanding of the challenges of globalization and global competition; students should gain a better understanding of the evolution of strategy as industry conditions change and new opportunities arise. As with any case study, students should learn to translate good analysis into appropriate recommendations for action.

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

Bright Lights is a small non-profit organization in Lincoln, NE offering a summer enrichment program to school aged children. Post 9/11, the organization faces challenges in its efforts to sustain financial resources. With enrollment and course offerings on the rise, funding is more important than ever. At the second to the last meeting of the year at which budgets are established, the Bright Lights' Board of Directors asked the Executive Director, Kathy Hanrath, and the Co-Owner/Director of Education Services, Barb Hoppe, to come up with some alternatives for fundraising top present at the final yearly meeting. Kathy has recently attended some sessions on franchising at a local entrepreneurship conference and would like to explore franchising as an option for Bright Lights growth. Kathy feels that franchising might have the potential to both increase performance and funding. This case focuses on issues associated with the exploration of franchising as a method of distribution and capital acquisition for a social organization. It calls attention to the appropriate situations for franchising, the importance of organizational assessment for franchise readiness, and other legal, economical, and organizational considerations.

We propose that strategies typically applied to support corporate entrepreneurship can be extended and applied at the national level, with the objective of stimulating not just entrepreneurship – but new ventures that grow. Only when individual ventures grow, can sustained growth occur at the level of the macroeconomy. Keys to growth of new ventures in this model include effective management of knowledge, resources, rewards, and infrastructure.

The paper sought to extend previous research on factors associated with corporate entrepreneurship (CE) by surveying operating managers and top executives in Thai manufacturing firms.

The paper used an expanded case method that combined face‐to‐face interviews with the top executives and results of responses to the corporate entrepreneurship assessment instrument (CEAI) by middle managers in three large and three medium Thai manufacturing firms.

The results of this paper suggest that management support for CE, their use of rewards and recognition, and their allowing workers discretion in their jobs all are significantly related to improving competitiveness, as indicated by internal performance improvement and firm financial improvement. Unlike previous studies, time allocated to idea generation/innovation activities and cross‐boundary communication are not found to be significantly associated with CE in Thai manufacturing firms. These quantitative results are augmented by the interview results, which suggest that CE in Thai manufacturing firms is affected by global competitiveness, technology, and government policies.

The generalizability of the findings are limited by the size of the sample and the use of a single industry.

The results suggest that Thai firms can affect change in their CE activities and that these changes will impact the bottom line. CE activities are influenced by competition and government policy.

The paper combined the insights of personal interviews with top managers and the feedback from top managers in their firms to gain an overview of CE activity.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The overall survey results point to management support for corporate entrepreneurialism being related significantly to improving competitiveness. The use of rewards, recognition and opportunities for employees to determine their own activities and pursue their own agenda where appropriate are highly significant factors. Time allocated to idea generation and innovation activities appears to be less marked, however, than in previous studies elsewhere. One limitation to the findings is that it is concerned specifically with one industry; 181 operational managers provided usable responses but with all of them in manufacturing, this limits the way the findings can be generalized to other industries; at the same time, some companies who might have offered a different perspective did not give permission for the research to take place at all.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to add new theoretical insights on the employee‐organization relationship (EOR) in the context of corporate entrepreneurship (CE), specifically in collective entrepreneurship.

The paper presents a brief overview of the content of each of the articles included in this special issue.

In the last decades, the study of the EOR has become an integral part of the literature as an approach aimed to provide the theoretical foundations to understanding the employee and employer perspectives to the exchange. Also, the greater complex environment and the higher level of innovativeness have pushed firms to become more entrepreneurial in order to identify new opportunities for sustained superior performance. In this context, emerges CE and involves not only formal activities to enhance product innovation, risk taking and a proactive response to environmental forces, but also organizational learning, driven by collaboration, and commitment. Specifically, different EORs and specific human resources management practices are required in the light of collective entrepreneurship, understood as work among entrepreneurial teams within the organizations and collaboration among employees.

The paper provides an overview of the EOR in collective entrepreneurship.

Cutts Floral Distributors, founded in 2004 by Dave Lambe, was a floral wholesaler in Lincoln, Nebraska. The firm became a top wholesaler in the Lincoln area and had expanded its delivery range (all accessed by the company's hand delivery system) up to 100 miles outside of Lincoln. The company credited its success to the expertise of its founder, a professor of horticultural entrepreneurship, and to the company's commitment to customer service. Dave Lambe came to believe that Cutts had exhausted the local market and began looking for growth opportunities within driving distance. Proposed locations for expansion included Kansas City (MO/KS), Denver (CO), and St Joseph (MO). The case provides an in-depth look at Cutts, its competitive advantages, and strategy as the firm faced a critical decision, made more difficult by the uncertainties of the economic recession. This case encourages students to think critically in order to answer the case's central questions: “Should Cutts expand? If so, where?” The complexity of an expansion decision and the multitude of factors that may influence an entrepreneur's decision to expand are illustrated throughout the case.