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Expected learning outcomes: To respond to the case question, students would analyze macro- and microeconomic differences to determine HC Securities’ preferred global strategy and appropriate market entry mode. The case demonstrates how instability in a local market, in this case Egypt, can force a company to go global. It also demonstrates how two superficially similar markets, Singapore and Hong Kong, provide different opportunities for HC Securities and require different global strategies: Singapore provides a jumping-off point to its predominantly Muslim neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia, whereas Hong Kong gives access to China and could provide a new customer base of Asian investors willing to invest in Africa and the Middle East.

Brief overview of the case: The case introduces the Egyptian investment company HC Securities, which is facing challenges related to Egypt’s political instability and economic slowdown. HC Securities’ CEO, Mr. Choucri, feels expansion to one of the Asia-Pacific countries could help with the company’s growth and stability. He identifies Hong Kong and Singapore as the most compelling locations because of their sophisticated economies and growth potential in the investments industry. This case provides information about each market, allowing students to respond to the question “What should Choucri do to assure a market-based solution for his company?”

Student level and proposed courses: The case is appropriate for use in undergraduate courses in international business or strategic management.

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International Business.

In the light of the case study and the accompanying case study questions, the incumbent would be able to gain a comprehensive understanding on the theoretical underpinnings of retail store expansion, identify the challenges for expanding a brand into emerging markets such as India and apply various marketing strategies aimed at in-depth analysis retail expansion. Learners can further comprehend the importance of brand communication incorporated by the brand to attract its customer subset.

It was in December 2022, when Mason Chatterjee, the Indian brand head of Armani Exchange (A|X), was confronted with the managerial dilemma whether launching the second store in the city of Ahmedabad would be a right decision. Another issue that was troubling him was how to go about launching a second store in a city which was not a home to other luxury sublabels. The case study illustrates the decisional aspect of retail expansion adopted by Chatterjee, considering the distinct managerial perspectives. Chatterjee found potential in the city of Ahmedabad, owing to an increased number of high-net-worth individuals and other macro factors. The case study is primarily an outcome of research carried out at A|X store at Ahmedabad One mall, Ahmedabad, for over a fortnight in the month of February 2023. The expansion decision of Chatterjee proved to be a success in the city of Ahmedabad reaching a sales figure of INR 1 crore (US$130,344.11) in the very first month of its launch. However, he was confronted with the managerial dilemma of further expansion, just six months after the launch of the latest expansion.

The case study is intended for advanced undergraduates or postgraduate programs in management or electives such as marketing, retail management and strategic management. It has not only been specifically designed for teaching the concept of retail expansion but can also be used to integrate contexts on brand’s merchandise mix, retail positioning, visual merchandising and brand communication. The case study has an overview of each of these elements. The instructor may choose them into the context for a wider encompassing detailed lesson or particularly on the main aspect of the case.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing

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.

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CSS: 5: International business.

The Wanda Case offers an overview of Wanda Group’s transition from a real estate firm in China to a global leader in the movie industry. Wanda Group, a Chinese conglomerate headquartered in Beijing, caused a major commotion in the US movie industry when it acquired AMC Entertainment in 2012. The AMC acquisition was the largest acquisition by a Chinese firm in the USA up to that time, costing $2.6 billion. Following that, a series of acquisitions had made Wanda Group the largest movie theater company, respectively, in the USA, Europe, and the World by the end of 2016. In order to fully comprehend the transition of the Wanda Group, the case begins by introducing the group’s origins and its original business model. It then discusses the challenges in the Chinese real estate market and factors that played a role in Wanda Group’s shift toward the movie industry. The authors further introduce the trends in movie theaters/production, recognized on a global scale in China and the USA, including key competitors in the industry. Last, the authors discuss Wanda Group’s global expansion efforts through major acquisitions in the USA and Europe, and the challenges that Wanda Group faced.

The case was written with publicly available information, such as newspaper articles, databases and corporate websites. The authors did not disguise any details.

This case can fulfill various learning goals in international business and strategy courses. First, this case offers detailed information about the diversification process of Wanda Group. It first diversified from real estate development into the movie cinema and production business in China (i.e. product diversification). More recently, Wanda Group diversified into the USA and Europe (i.e. geographical diversification). With the information provided in the case, students will be able to evaluate the costs and benefits of diversification strategies. Second, students can examine pros and cons of available entry modes for international expansions. Particularly, students will be able to evaluate the costs and benefits of acquisitions to Wanda Group’s international expansion. The authors also believe that this case can be used for introducing a relatively less-known emerging-market conglomerate, especially from China. Last, considering the rich information this case contains, the authors may use it as an exam case to evaluate students’ comprehensive knowledge gained from the course.

The case discusses corporate strategy, particularly diversification, the resource-based view, and institutional theory.

Students are expected to integrate decision-making tools and frameworks to create decisions under uncertainty. Students are expected to understand the general business process of fuel retail industry.

PT. Pertamina Retail (PTPR) is a subsidiary of PT. Pertamina, an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas company. In the first quarter of 2020, PTPR’s sales volume decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s large-scale social restrictions. Iin Febrian was just appointed as President Director in March 2020; he must formulate a survival strategy facing COVID-19 pandemic uncertainties. The case elaborates on PTPR’s decision to expand immediately or hold. Scenarios and expected values have been given to simplifying the calculation of a decision tree. The case also challenges students to think critically on providing a strategy to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond using decision tree analysis and BCG Matrix or Ansoff Matrix.

BA level and MBA program in Decision Analysis Course or Strategic Management Course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

In 2014, PZ Wilmar announced a new oil palm business worth $650 million in Cross River State, which would aggressively expand Nigeria’s palm oil production. In July 2015, a year after the plan was announced, a report jointly released by Friends of the Earth US and Environmental Rights Action Nigeria alleged that Wilmar was not complying with Nigerian laws, and accused them of human rights violations, environmental destruction, fraud, and land grabbing. The multifaceted nature of the “Cross River State crisis” permits “close-ups” from different vantage points to analyze the economic, environmental, social, and governance implications of palm oil expansion from a corporate sustainability perspective.

The case was researched utilizing secondary data, all materials are readily available to the public. There is no disguise of any actual person or entity and no relationship between the authors and the organizations or individuals mentioned in the case.

The case is best used at graduate level. It is very well suited for a MBA-level sustainability, business and society, or corporate social responsibility, or business ethics courses.

The case is grounded on the stakeholder theory, yet offering a fresh perspective, leveraging on the uniqueness of the Nigerian context. The authors argue that, while the assessment of the stakeholder salience of environmental groups operating in Nigeria might be different vis-à-vis other countries with sounder institutional environments, the normative question on whether the company should address these claims persists. The authors also draw from the social movements literature and bring forth the idea that the characteristics of the Nigerian context may jeopardize the prospects of success of adversarial tactics such as the issuing of lawsuits and extensive media exposure, which have been deemed effective elsewhere.

Learning outcomes of this study are as follows: conduct a comprehensive organizational diagnosis to uncover the peculiarities of managing a family business; evaluate the spirit of innovation of the new generation to drive rejuvenation initiatives in the family firm; reflect on the concept of stealth innovation and its manifestation in the context of transgenerational entrepreneurship; and assess the effectiveness of managerial decision-making and provide recommendations for securing the sustainability of a family firm.

This case starts with the entrepreneurial beginnings of Jack Misakyan, who transformed the small blacksmith venture of his father into a large and profitable family enterprise with operations across different countries and industrial sectors. Since the establishment of Misakyan Technical Solutions (MTS), Jack relied on the help of his brothers, Ara and Hovik, who have joined the ranks of owners and managers to drive the expansion efforts of the family firm. Over the years, the brothers were successful in pursuing a strategy of continuous growth and diversification by taking advantage of opportunities in several industries and regions of the world. They opened branches in Kuwait, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia, and operated in industries of heavy-truck maintenance, pharmaceuticals, marine shipping, construction materials, quarry and restauration. Yet, four decades after its launch, the company was entering in a phase of stagnation and was in need for entrepreneurial rejuvenation. The members of the third generation, who have recently joined the family firm, believed that it was their obligation to restructure the operations and revive the entrepreneurial spirit in their fathers’ organization. Moreover, after several months of market analysis and investigation, two of the cousins came up with a new business idea that was pursued entirely in a stealth mode. By describing the strategic events and family dynamics that shaped the evolution of MTS over time, the case offers an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of managerial decision-making and provide recommendations for ensuring the longevity of the family enterprise.

Upper undergraduate classes.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Decision-making seems simple, but, in reality, it is not an easy task to decide the cause for its profound result or consequence, leading to inevitable failures. Therefore, a leader must recognize whether there is something incorrect so as to avoid bad results. A good leader is a person who carefully reviews and analyzes aspects of a problem, knows the strengths and weaknesses of his organization and evaluates what the advantages or risks are. It cannot be denied that the appropriate options will reap many benefits to the business. For such important things, this paper will discuss the dilemma of Viettire, a tire distributor company in Vietnam. Accordingly, its CEO was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach the Myanmar market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries. However, with different ideas, the expansion strategies in this new market become controversial. The General Director and Founder of Viettire were wondering how Viettire could expand its existing business into Myanmar. To expand the company to new emerging market in Myanmar, Hoang Nguyen – CEO of Viettire – had conducted a strategic analysis of external environment factors to define the opportunities and threats when doing business in Myanmar by using Porter’s five forces model, S.W.O.T and competitive advantages analysis. The results indicated that Myanmar’s business environment is highly risky for foreign investors because of uncertain political, economic, social reforms in the process. Among three options, namely, exporting, licensing and wholly owned, however, Option 2 is illustrated as the best strategy for its dilemma.

Postgraduate/Graduate Business level.

As for a market mechanism, what produces, how and for whom, is not the business’s demand but the consumer’s demand. The business sells only what the market needs, not what it has. In the period of increasingly competitive conditions, stabilizing and expanding markets are a prerequisite for survival. If stability is seen as a “defensive” way, expansion is a “defensive attack” like trying to hold on the “pie” that the market gives to itself. This strategic action is to strengthen regular, close relationships with existing customers and establish new customers. As a result, the potential market is transformed into a target market. Hence, decision-making of which market, which method is the issue that a leader has to think the choice to avoid risks. Mr Hung, Viettire’s co-owner, suggests that Myanmar should be taken into account as a company’s new entry, thus exploring this potential market to increase the company’s growth and profitability. In the progress, Viettire’s marketing team had been doing a thorough tire market investigation in Myanmar. It was concluded that this emerging country, especially Yangon City, was the most suitable for those who were willing to embark on an overseas investment expansion. They believe this was a good opportunity to gain market share compared with other entrants and competitive rivals; if Viettire hesitated to invest, others definitely had jumped in with a first-mover advantage. However, the CEO, Mr Hoang, was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach this new market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries.

Understand the basic decisions that firms contemplating foreign expansion must make: which markets to enter, when to enter those markets and at what scale. Recognize the current strategic decisions an organization is facing: positioning, portfolio and market expansion approach. Learn how to develop an effective strategic plan. Be familiar with different strategies for competing globally and their pros and cons. Evaluate various strategic options and decisions in accordance with a company’s resources and capabilities.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

Marketing.

This case can be used in an international marketing course or module, at executive or MBA level, and is particularly suitable as a case on global branding.

MTN was launched in 1994 as a leading provider of communication services, offering cellular network access and business solutions. After building up a successful operation in South Africa, achieving a market share of some 38 per cent (second only to Vodacom, the dominant mobile telecommunications provider), the group began its expansion into the rest of Africa in 1998. It was the first South African cell phone network operator to do so. The objective of this expansion was, despite the uncertain political and regulatory environment, to take advantage of the market opportunities in Africa, given its underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure and the transferability of MTN's skills into other African countries. At the time of the case (June 2005), MTN had established itself in eight different African countries, with a subscriber base of 14.3 million in South Africa and 2.9 million in the rest of Africa, with plans for further growth in the territory and elsewhere. As a result of this international expansion, a major challenge was to ensure consistent branding in the different countries.

The expected learning outcomes are: to explore the challenges of international expansion into new markets; to understand global brand building strategies, how to create a consistent identity and how to build a services brand; to understand the challenges of implementing a marketing change strategy across different countries with different cultures and with employees with different agendas and to highlight the importance of people in providing a service and in delivering the brand promise.

Teaching note.

Business Management, Global Marketing Strategy, Strategic Management, International Business, International Management.

The case is suitable for undergraduate and post-graduate business and management students. The case is based on secondary data collection and all the facts are real.

The expected learning outcomes include the selection of a foreign market; the determinants of the foreign mode of entry strategy; the process of integrating an internationalization strategy; how to choose the most appropriate partner; and the monitoring of international markets. The case provides a space to think about practice and help learners, therefore, to connect theory and practice.

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