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This case study aims to describe a set of human resources practices that can help prevent major scandals that would ruin the reputation of an organization.

The authors performed an in-depth case study of a standardized testing company, which has operated in Thailand for decades without a major cheating scandal.

Referrals-only recruitment, salient moral and religious cues in the workplace, and credible threats of punishments are the key tools the company has used to guard against cheating.

The company’s practices are only appropriate in the context of a collectivist and culturally-homogeneous environment.

This case study represents an original and practical contribution to scandal-prevention strategies.

The purpose of this case study is to chronicle a remarkable business turnaround in the banking sector of Oman.

A narrative of the rapid transformation of a laggard bank into Oman's second largest bank is presented and analyzed.

The momentum for change was initiated and sustained through the leadership’s willingness to take big risks and use massive challenges as opportunities to kindle team spirit and solidify a new, winning attitude among the staff.

The bank focused on offering frictionless, low-risk, incremental value at scale. That’s the digital era performance requirement. For example, it introduced a highly successful no-frills credit card marketed as a fast-to-approve and easy-to-use alternative.

The case provides a rare glimpse into management practices in middle eastern banking sector.

Teaching objectives are as follows: students need to understand the critical choices involved in introducing a product into a new market, including but not limited to the macroeconomic context, the target consumer segment, the positioning of the product, distribution channels, pricing and promotion strategy. Students must learn to appreciate the importance of anticipating the reaction of incumbents, and how such reactions may determine the success or failure of a new product entry into the market. Students develop skills to analyze complementarities between different distribution channels and understand how investments in developing one channel can result in positive or negative consequences in other channels.

How can health products such as multivitamins and other nutritional supplements make headway into emerging markets that are moving up the ranks of middle-income economies? This case study investigates the case of Thailand, a country that in the early 1990s registered a per capita income comparable to Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia today. It illustrates, through the real experience of Pat – an executive of a local subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company – how a new entrant exploited the rapidly changing economic and retailing environment to become a successful player in an important and growing segment of consumer products.

This case is suitable for master’s degree students or short-course executives.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Entrepreneurship, strategic analysis.

Entrepreneurship, strategic management, business in Asia.

This case describes the experience of a start-up online TV company in Thailand. It supplies details about how the business idea was hatched, what challenges the company is currently facing, and how the future prospects for the online media market in Thailand are unfolding.

Participants are expected to be able to compare the similarities and differences between a textbook model of entrepreneurship and the real experience of the company described in the case. A better appreciation for basic strategic analysis such as examining internal strengths and weaknesses and understanding external opportunities and threats can also be developed.

Teaching notes.

Leadership, psychology.

Organizational behavior, international business, gender and society at Undergraduate level.

This short case describes a qualitative investigation on the dynamics of power between young business leaders and senior supervisees in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Views from both the supervisors and supervisees on current working relationships are presented.

After reading and discussing the case, participants are expected to be able to identify key concepts from organizational behavior theory, including stereotyping, leadership styles, and influence tactics. Participants should also become sensitized to gender roles and their influence on workplace behavior.

Teaching notes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze an unusual legal development concerning brand protection in Thailand. The case study elucidates many key concepts in brand management and the political economy of Thailand.

A case study approach is adopted, in which a chronology of key events surrounding a supreme court decision are developed. An analysis of the causes and consequences of the verdict is presented drawing on inputs from legal and business experts.

The decision at the center of this case is ground breaking. Unlike conventional infringement decisions that are based on tangible designs of products, this case established protection of a brand image based on advertisements aired on television. It is argued that the decision went too far in the protection of trade dress and may potentially limit freedom and creativity for future marketing campaigns.

Intellectual property protection in developing economies such as in Thailand can be complicated by a lack of clear laws and the political and social influence of the parties involved.

The case provides the first analysis of a potentially consequential supreme court decision with links to the unique context of the political economy of Thailand.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate debate about the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating Confucian values in personnel and marketing practices of a manufacturing firm in an ethnically diverse, emerging economy of Southeast Asia.

Primary data from the direct experience of the company’s manager were combined with secondary sources of information on the business landscape of Malaysia. Key lessons were developed from discussion and reflection on experiences of people involved with the company.

Cultivating warm, long-term relationships with customers through product dependability and gifts contributed to the firm’s marketing success. Family-like bonds between employees, “not strictly professional by Western standards” succeeded in keeping the turnover low. The paternalistic leadership style, however, came at the expense of a possible loss of constructive conflict through participatory decision-making.

Analysis is restricted to the experience of a single company. Research findings are thus highly context-specific.

The case shows an example of successful implementation of key Confucian values in multiple business areas. The interplay between the East Asian values and the diverse ethnic context of Malaysia is also examined.

This paper aims to identify strategies used by companies during the recent global recession and to investigate the effectiveness of offensive and defensive strategies. It also investigates how these different types of strategies are sequenced.

The paper draws on cases from seven publicly listed Indian information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITESs) companies. This longitudinal study draws on 32 semi-structured interviews with top management. The data were triangulated using annual and quarterly reports, emails, organization profiles and customer satisfaction reports.

Offensive and defensive strategic responses were deployed concurrently, not sequentially. Offensive responses were crucial in turning around a firm. Identical strategies can yield different results in product and service companies.

The findings of this paper should be generalized with care because of the sampling scope. Future studies should include quantitative research over different recession periods.

The paper provides insights for practitioners on how to respond to economic recession and prepare for recovery.

The paper enriches the corporate turnaround and business cycle management literature by analyzing the behavior of firms from India and from the high-tech industry.

Strategic change for business sustainability.

The case is targeted at the BA level and MBA level, and strategic management courses.

The case study focuses on strategic change for business sustainability in the commercial bank sector in Thailand. It describes how Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) developed and implemented strategic change to achieve business sustainability in the economic fluctuations, and the competition in the banking market. SCB is a very long established bank which held the highest market capitalization among Thai Financial Institutions, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy in the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

These include developing students' understanding of the context and practices of strategic change and the nature of theoretical traditions in the field of strategic change.

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