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Corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The Homegrown case is designed for teaching corporate social responsibility and business ethics at undergraduate and graduate levels. The case may be used on a variety of courses including: corporate social responsibility, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, and business ethics.

In May 2003, the headline of the East African newspaper screamed “The Kenyan Horticultural Industry under fire.” The industry was accused of exploitative labor policies with respect to working conditions, workers' welfare, sexual harassment, and exposure to harmful pesticides by the key stakeholders led by the Kenya Human Rights Commission. The stakeholders had announced plans to conduct national and international campaigns against the flower growing and exporting companies in Kenya. Mr Richard Fox, the Managing Director of Homegrown was worried that the publicity had adversely tarnished the image and reputation of the horticultural industry in Kenya as a whole, including Homegrown. He wondered how best to respond to these allegations. Should Homegrown wait to see what the competitors and other stakeholders would do, as these were industry-wide problems or should Homegrown take the lead? And if so, what should be the scope of the programs, given the diverse nature of the issues? He had to make decision quickly.

The case provides opportunity for students to analyze, discuss, and debate topical issues in CSR. At the end of the case, students should be able to: identify emerging CSR and ethical issues facing the horticultural industry in Kenya; analyze the cost of implementing CSR programs in business organizations; evaluate the impact of CSR programs on business performance; justify and defend choices on CSR, and ethical decisions.

Not included.

Pricing of natural gas in India suffers from asymmetry because of the presence of limited suppliers having byzantine contracts. The oligopolistic market combined with price regulation results in welfare losses, and market failure. We argue that for the sake of long-term development of natural gas sector in fast developing economies like India, the long-run marginal cost (LRMC) seems to be the most suitable pricing policy. In the case analysis, we present a theoretical framework of calculating LRMC while acknowledging that the conditions necessary for a ‘first-best world’ rarely exist. We conclude that it is very much possible to gradually move from the existing ad-hoc pricing mechanism to a more robust LRMC regime that takes into account not just the production cost but also a scarcity premium as well as any externalities resulting from the natural-gas fuel cycle. The outcome based on our model compares very well with the one from the Rangarajan Committee's formula that got the government's nod recently for fixing of price of indigenously produced natural gas, to be effective from 01st April 2014.

This case describes and analyzes the negotiations surrounding the U.S.–Thailand free trade agreement (FTA) that never materialized. The case offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the complexities of trade negotiations, the welfare analyses of FTAs (with trade diversion and creation), and the growth of FTAs and customs unions (CUs) as opposed to multilateral trade liberalizations.

Niche products and environmental ethics.

The case is suitable for undergraduate students who have some understanding of competitive advantage in emerging economies, of niche products, the resource-based perspective and environmental ethics.

The case concerns the Indonesian coffee industry, specifically the production of Kopi Luwak, a coffee that involves a type of local wild animal as an essential part of the process. The case outlines a typical problem for a new leader who has to start his tenure with a creditable performance. The company is a resource-based one that has to manage a potential risk of violating environmental ethics.

The case reveals the value of the international value chain for a cup of coffee. Through investigating the intersection between business feasibility and conservation issues, students should be able to understand what are appropriate business opportunities with environmental ethics considerations.

Teaching notes are available; consult the librarian for access.

This case is suitable for students just beginning to learn finance principles but is also appropriate to use in courses with experienced students and executives. In January 2008, Delphi Corporation (Delphi) had been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for more than two years but appeared to be on the brink of approving a plan of reorganization (POR) that would allow it to emerge from bankruptcy with a significantly improved balance sheet. Delphi's POR called for a reduction of the company's leverage by exchanging the debt of the unsecured creditors for a mixture of new debt and new equity. The resulting reduction in interest expense was projected to return Delphi to profitability and make the restructured company a viable going concern. Students take the position of various claimants to explain why that claimant class would or would not vote for the plan.

This case is a vehicle for discussing the theory and practice of option pricing through the valuation of warrants of Chrysler held by the U.S. government and of the loan guarantee provided by the U.S. government to Chrysler.

This case was primarily researched using academic research papers, industry reports (Egg Industry Center and others), and finance databases including Standard and Poor’s Capital IQ. Regarding the cost and investment budgets, the case relies mainly on an experiment conducted by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply, updated by the authors of this case.

Eggs produced by cage-free birds, while more expensive than conventionally produced eggs, are gaining in popularity among consumers who want only eggs that are produced more humanely. A number of major distributors, including Whole Foods, McDonalds and Starbucks have pledged to sell only cage-free produced eggs by 2025. Several states including California, Oregon and Michigan have passed laws limiting conventional egg production. The case provides costs and industry information and needed to project free cash flows and risk-adjusted opportunity cost of capital and perform break-even capital budgeting analysis of the two egg production alternatives.

This case is appropriate for graduate corporate finance courses. It is particularly appropriate for agribusiness finance courses. A preliminary exercise was used during the fall 2018 in a land grant university, just after the “Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act,” also known as Proposition 12, was passed in California in favor of cage-free egg production. The exercise was revised and used in the fall 2019 in the same class. This extended version of the case, was classroom tested in the fall 2020 in an agribusiness finance graduate class, with agricultural economics and business students enrolled.

It enables students to understand and design a business model canvas, design standard operating procedure (SOP) for very unorganized business operations and also devise base pricing for vendor negotiation.

Mr Gaurav Chaudhary, chief executive officer and Founder of Pashushala.com, established a first-ever Livestock online marketplace in India, leveraging the penetration of internet users in 2019. Pashsuhala.com evolved as an all-inclusive ecosystem that offered an innovative business model by bundling financial aid, logistics, veterinary and insurance solutions to its buyers and sellers. While every other aspect seemed to have had fallen in place, Gaurav was not convinced with the everyday handling of the cattle especially during transportation. Transporting cattle was the most challenging task tempered with issues such as changing weather conditions, stock density, lack of training on handling cattle while loading and unloading, long journey hours, feeding and watering procedures and many more for which Gaurav had to depend on the logistics partners. Gaurav was in a dilemma whether to have his own fleet armed with trained personnel for transporting the cattle or to streamline the existing operating procedures into SOP to be followed by logistics partners. If he continued with logistics partners he also had to work on standard costs i.e. fixed and variable costs incurred during the transportation of livestock. The case deals with business concepts such as supply chain risk management in the livestock sector, SOPs for a very unstructured and unpredictable ecosystem, pricing strategies and business model canvas.

Masters in business administration (MBA) and Executive MBA level.

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 9: Operations and Logistics.

This case is about “Red”, a cross-border e-commerce platform developed from a community which was built to share overseas shopping experience. With sharp insights into the consumption behavior of urban white-collar women and riding on its community e-commerce advantage, “Red”, a cross-border e-commerce startup, pulled in three rounds of financing within just 16 months regardless of increasingly competitive market. On the other hand, well-established platforms such as T-mall International and Joybuy also stepped in, and their involvement will also speed up the industry integration and usher in a reshuffling period. Confronted with the “price war” started by those e-commerce giants, in what ways can “Red” adjust its shopping experience and after-sales services to enhance the brand value and sharpen its edge?

This case features a prominent antidumping case in the United States against six of its major foreign shrimp suppliers. The case fits well in a discussion and analysis of the (welfare) consequences of protectionism, the basic case for free trade, and the political economy of protectionism.