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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.

Considers why Blockbuster has a competitive advantage in video retailing. Details both Blockbuster's use of revenue sharing contracts with movie studios to coordinate the vertical chain and Blockbuster's “Go Home Happy” marketing campaign. Challenges readers to understand how revenue sharing contracts, which are imitable and sometimes used by Blockbuster's competitors, can nevertheless be a key part of Blockbuster's advantage.

Jim Keyes, CEO of Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc., was facing the biggest challenge of his career. In March 2010 Keyes was meeting with Hollywood studios in an effort to negotiate better terms for the $1 billion worth of merchandise Blockbuster had purchased the year before. In recent years, Blockbuster's share of the video rental market had been sharply decreasing in the face of competitors such as the low-cost, convenient Redbox vending machines and mail-order and video-on-demand service Netflix. While Blockbuster's market capitalization had dropped 47 percent to $62 million in 2009, Netflix's had shot up 55 percent to $3.9 billion that year. The only hope for Blockbuster, as Keyes saw it, was to shift its business model from primarily brick-and-mortar physical DVD rentals to increased digital and mail-order video delivery. In Keyes's favor, the studios were more than willing to provide him with that help. Hollywood wanted to see Blockbuster win the video-rental wars. Consumers still made frequent purchases of DVDs at its store—purchases which were much more profitable for studios than the rentals that remained Blockbuster's primary business. Blockbuster had made efforts at making its business model more nimble, but the results had been disappointing, and its debt continued to skyrocket. By the end of 2009, the company's debt had climbed to $856 million, its share of the $6.5 billion video rental business had fallen to 27 percent, and its revenues had tumbled 23 percent to $4.1 billion.

The objective of this case is to discuss how different business models and supply chain structures impact the financials of the firms in the DVD rental business. In particular, the goal is to convey that the characteristics of the movie (recent/big hit or old/eclectic) affect whether it is best rented from a centralized or decentralized model. In addition, as streaming gains market share, the impact will be different for movie types and business models.

By 2009 Netflix had all but trounced its traditional bricks-and-mortar competitors in the video rental industry. Since its founding in the late 1990s, the company had changed the face of the industry and threatened the existence of such entrenched giants as Blockbuster, in large part because of its easy-to-understand subscription model, policy of no late fees, and use of analytics to leverage customer data to provide a superior customer experience and grow its e-commerce media platform. Netflix's investment in data collection, IT systems, and advanced analytics such as proprietary data mining techniques and algorithms for customer and product matching played a crucial role in both its strategy and success. However, the explosive growth of the digital media market presents a serious challenge for Netflix's business going forward. How will its analytics, customer data, and customer interaction models play a role in the future of the digital media space? Will it be able to stand up to competition from more seasoned players in the digital market, such as Amazon and Apple? What position must Netflix take in order to successfully compete in this digital arena?

To examine the benefits and risks of investment in analytical technology as a means for mining customer data for business insights. Students will develop a strategy position for Netflix's investment in technology and its digital media business. Students must also consider how new corporate partnerships and changes to the customer channel model will allow the company to prosper in the highly competitive digital space.

Following are the learning outcomes: recognize the significance of project management as an integrated approach for managing projects in an unprecedented situation. Identify the issues related to managing contemporary projects such as shorter product life cycles, changing customer preferences and last-minute risks. Evaluate the role of sub-domains of project management such as project prioritization, project negotiation, project portfolio system, project risk assessment and management and project stakeholder management.

It is the year 2020, and the entire world is struggling to cope up with the crisis caused by the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic. Normal life has come to a standstill. All industries have realized the significance of developing innovative strategies to move to the new normal situation. This case describes the plight of TVR Cinemas, a business vertical of Tiya Group, which caters to the business of production and distribution of Bollywood and Hollywood movies in India. With the lock-down of the Indian subcontinent, the multiplex business is badly hurt. With new norms of sanitation, social distancing, and a ‘stay home stay safe policy’ the company has to devise new ways to sustain in the market. This case invites students to put themselves in the shoes of the company project manager, Mr. Ramchandani, to provide recommendations about deciding ways to release seven pipe-lined Bollywood movie projects, deciding on the appropriate over-the-top (OTT) partner for tie-ups, and devising strategic steps to recover the reputation of the company by launching an OTT platform themselves.

The case is useful for introducing basics of project management along with decision making for projects in an uncertain situation. This case can be used for the students of undergraduate/postgraduate/executive level across the modules of project management/project risk management and negotiation management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

In July 2004, J.P. Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co., was in the midst of formulating the final terms of a public-to-private buyout proposal for AMC Entertainment Inc. (AMCE), a publicly traded movie theater company.

This case reviews the development of Dianping. After seeing Zagat's unique business model in the United States, founder Zhang Tao found that he could bring it to China and bring about local innovation. At the beginning of its establishment, the collection and promotion of comment content was the major challenge for Dianping. At the same time, Dianping faced legal issues. To solve these problems, the review mechanism of Dianping was designed to a certain extent to ensure the fairness of the review. With the advent of the mobile Internet era, Dianping began to develop a new business model. Relying on its high-quality “word-of-mouth” content and mass basis, Dianping launched group buying, online restaurant ordering, and other businesses. Dianping has always been open to strategic partners. Since 2015, Dianping has undergone historical changes, merging with Meituan. Since then, Dianping has continuously adjusted its business and organizational structure to maintain its competitiveness. Gradually, Dianping has changed from an independent business entity into a business unit of Meituan.

This case is set in the midst of the attempted takeover of Walt Disney Productions by the raider Saul Steinberg in June 1984. Disney's chief executive officer ponders whether to fight the takeover or to pay “greenmail”. One significant influence on the decision is the “true” value of the firm. The case offers, either directly or through analysis of it, several estimates of value. The valuation question invites a review of Disney's past performance and current competitive position. Other significant influences on the decision are the ethics and economics of paying greenmail. The rich range of issues raised in the case (strategy, valuation, performance measurement, and ethics) makes it an effective first case, review case, or final exam in a corporate-finance course. A student worksheet file is available for use with this case.

Pancho’s Burritos is a high-end fast-food restaurant located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Due to a recent surge in customers, the lines at the restaurant during peak hours are becoming very long and causing excessive customer waiting. To improve current customer wait times and plan for future growth requirements, Francisco “Pancho” Escoba, the proprietor, wants to get a better understanding of the current operational capacity. The key decision Escoba must make is how to redesign his burrito-making process to increase the capacity and reduce customer wait time.

Suitable for an undergraduate or MBA course, the case can be used in an introductory operations course to teach capacity analysis and queuing. The case provides a relatable and understandable setting for students without an operations background to gain a better grasp of basic course concepts and illustrates how interactions between capacity and queuing affect one another. As an exam or review case it works well because it contains standard process calculations that all students should know how to perform.

Strategy.

This case can be used on a strategic management course in the second year of an MBA programme, any special elective course on the media and entertainment industry and in executive education programmes to demonstrate the application of strategic management concepts and frameworks.

The Indian film industry was the largest in the world and the seventh largest in terms of revenue. Significant number of movies were made in languages such as Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, with Hindi commanding the highest number. The film industry in Karnataka made movies in the Kannada language. The industry was plagued by a host of issues with the industry contributing just 2 per cent of the revenues and box office success rate at just around 25 per cent. The state government had set up Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy with the objective of promotion and development of the movie industry in Karnataka. The Chairman of the academy, Shailesh Singh, was extremely concerned about the poor success rate of Kannada movies and was contemplating various options of reviving the ailing Kannada movie industry.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: application of strategic management frameworks in the context of the movie industry; analysis of industry issues from the long-term and short-term perspectives; study of different entities in the movie industry and the roles they play and their interdependence; applying learning to suggest survival strategies in an extremely competitive market; and insights into the role of government in the media/entertainment industry.

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 11: Strategy.