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This case examines issues surrounding the choice of financing arrangements for the acquisition of Radiologix in July 2006. The case follows Mark Stolper, the CFO of RadNet, as he considers how to raise the $363 million in funds necessary to finance the acquisition. When completed, the combined firms will be the largest private diagnostic-imaging provider in the United States. When Stolper joined RadNet in 2003, he confronted a company with “too much debt, and the wrong kind of debt.” His goal is to finance the acquisition in a way that further enhances the financial strength and operating flexibility of the company. Given the large size of funding required, the firm is unlikely to be able to fund the entire transaction with first-lien or bank debt. His financial advisors differ in their recommendations for how to raise the remaining funds—one suggests using second-lien debt, and the other, high-yield debt.

The purpose of the case is to familiarize students with frequently encountered types of debt financing that are used to finance mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions. The case provides information on the distinctions among first-lien, second-lien, and high-yield debt in relation to their price, availability, flexibility of covenants, repayment ease, and composition of likely investors. The case is designed for use in courses that cover corporate financing, M&As, and debt financing.

The impact of corporate governance on internal controls and quality of financial disclosures.

Analysis of a real financial fraud event for a non-US multinational corporation. The case relies on accessing and analyzing annual reports for the firm, both before and after the fraud. Additional information on industry governance characteristics are provided in the case itself so that students can compare the firm to the industry.

This business case is centered on the analysis of Schneider Electric, a French multinational corporation, which had to restate their financial statements in 2011 because of accounting fraud. Following this event, Schneider undertook major changes in their board structure to improve internal control mechanisms. This pedagogical business case familiarizes students with international differences in ownership and board structure and emphasizes potential corporate governance changes after financial statement fraud.

Managerial finance, corporate finance, international finance, auditing. This case is more appropriate for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses.

Aramex PJSC: carving a competitive advantage in the global logistics and express transportation service industry.

Entrepreneurship, International Business, Strategy.

Post-graduates, Practitioners.

This case chronicles the Aramex PJSC story of entrepreneur Fadi Gandhour. The case looks at the new start-up, its growth and financing plans for expansion and how it got a competitive advantage in an industry dominated by big players. Aramex, as of 2012, was the only Arab company to have successfully listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. After 30 years at the helm of the company, Fadi Ghandour, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), was stepping down and was being succeeded by regional head, Hussein Hachem, the CEO of Middle East and Africa. Aramex had a competitive edge in emerging markets, and Fadi and Hussein knew that the route to sustainable growth was to capitalize on this opportunity using organic growth, acquisitions and strategic alliances.

Strategy included looking at gaining a competitive advantage in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and other emerging markets. Lessons are provided on capitalization of opportunity, funding and creating an organization culture that is sustainable and reflects the Founder's ideal.

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

Capital structure theory.

The case is meant for teaching and class discussion, and uses only secondary data based on published sources. The interpretation and perspectives presented are based solely on the secondary data.

This paper aims to help current and future managers understand capital structure theory and the various equity and debt finance options available for raising capital. It also examines the financial analysis and strategic management of black swan events. After the class discussion, students will understand how to financially and strategically manage a company during black swan events and also have a deep dive into capital structure analysis of a large company.

MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on corporate finance or advanced corporate finance. Executive/management development programs and short duration Massive Open Online Courses on investment decision-making and advanced corporate finance. MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on corporate strategy and economic environment and planning.

The case presents a context of irrational pricing in a stock and demonstrates the possible role of investor heuristics operating in the financial markets. The case is ideal in a course on behavioral finance to teach topics like the limits to arbitrage or the influence of various heuristics in financial markets.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Objective 1 analyse the internationalization process of Involys and compare it with the traditional theoretical analyses; Objective 2 analyse and learn from past successes and failures in Africa, building up a meaningful strategic analysis with a specific focus on: understanding the advantages and disadvantages of size (small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers/State Institutions customers); understanding the importance of institutional barriers and opportunities in this specific context; understanding and measuring the distances issues and the way they affect the company’s development Objective 3 learn to be creative and concrete in proposing feasible solutions to the Board of Involys.

Involys is a medium-sized Moroccan company designing and implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It was co-founded in the 1980s by its present chief executive officer (CEO), quite a charismatic individual. As its listing on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, the company has set its main goal to develop its business on the African markets. This is a significant shift in commercial strategy for a company who has built its past success on working with Northern countries. Involys tries with its ERP system to accompany state-level reforms. The case study takes place in 2017, Involys has just lost a significant project in Cameroun, despite significant pre-sale investments, and is trying to build on its success in Gabon to accelerate and improve its competitive position in Africa. The case focusses on the internationalization process of a firm involved in long terms contracts and dealing mainly with institutions such as states or state departments. The issues of sizes, institutional barriers and distance should be specifically addressed in a south-south context.

Master’s degree executive training programs.

CSS 5: International business.

The case opens with Martha Stewart's 2005 release from prison following her conviction for obstructing an insider-trading investigation of her 2001 sale of personal stock. The scandal dealt a crippling blow to the powerful Martha Stewart brand and drove results at her namesake company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), deep into the red. But as owner of more than 90 percent of MSO's voting shares, Stewart continued to control the company throughout the scandal.

The company faced significant external challenges, including changing consumer preferences and mounting competition in all of its markets. Ad rates were under pressure as advertisers began fragmenting spending across multiple platforms, including the Internet and social media, where MSO was weak. New competitors were luring readers from MSO's flagship publication, Martha Stewart Living. And in its second biggest business, merchandising, retailing juggernauts such as Walmart and Target were crushing MSO's most important sales channel, Kmart. Internal challenges loomed even larger, with numerous failures of governance while the company attempted a turnaround.

This case can be used to teach either corporate governance or turnarounds.

Students will learn:

• How control of shareholder voting rights by a founding executive can undermine corporate governance

• The importance of independent directors and board committees

• How company bylaws affect corporate governance

• How to recognize and respond to early signs of stagnation

• How to avoid management actions that can make a crisis worse

• How weaknesses in executive leadership can push a company into crisis and foster a culture that actively prevents strategic revitalization

How control of shareholder voting rights by a founding executive can undermine corporate governance

The importance of independent directors and board committees

How company bylaws affect corporate governance

How to recognize and respond to early signs of stagnation

How to avoid management actions that can make a crisis worse

How weaknesses in executive leadership can push a company into crisis and foster a culture that actively prevents strategic revitalization

In December 1999 Thomson Financial (TF) began a radical transformation from forty-one divisions toward a more integrated firm organized around customer segments. This required active, coordinated involvement from business, organization, and technology functions, as well as sustained investment and execution through the crises of the technology market crash and September 11, 2001. By 2005 TF had emerged as one of the top three financial information firms globally (with Bloomberg and Reuters).

Understand: 1. Building the customer-centric firm; “synchronizing” marketing (branding and sales), organizational, and technological infrastructure to focus on customer segments rather than products. 2. Making transformative, long-term investments under difficult circumstances. 3. Coordinating business, organization, and technology strategies throughout a long-term transformation process.

This paper uses financial report information to analyze the accounting results of the COVID-19 vaccine development for Johnson & Johnson (J&J). This paper also uses stock price information to analyze the market reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine development and the state of clinical trials for J&J.

This instructional case investigates the interaction between J&J and the COVID-19 vaccine. This paper uses information from financial reports to analyze the accounting results of the COVID-19 vaccine development for J&J. This paper also uses stock price information to analyze the market’s reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine development and the state of clinical trials for J&J.

This case has been used in both undergraduate and graduate levels to highlight the application of accounting theories to practice and improve the understanding of financial statements, especially when Covid-19 has affected the global economy. Under this new context, students could explore new ideas from accounting aspect.

The case aims to investigate the interaction between J&J as a pharmaceutical company and COVID-19. It provides a context in which to discuss the consequences of COVID-19 vaccines from several financial perspectives, such as stock prices, accounting policies, earnings and cash flows:

LO1: Understand the responses of stakeholders to J&J’s COVID-19 vaccines.

LO2: Understand the accounting policies that J&J and its competitors follow regarding COVID-19 vaccines related to revenues, R&D expenditures and government funds.

LO3: Apply Ball and Brown’s theory to the impact of COVID-19 vaccine development on earnings quality of J&J and its competitors.

LO4: Assess the importance of COVID-19 vaccines in management decision-making through dividend policy and management compensation structure.

To understand the motivations for adopting RI practices for institutional investors and asset managers; to understand the different RI strategies available to institutional investors; to understand the impediments to adoption of RI at an organisational level; to debate how financial institutions can drive the growth and adoption of RI among the investment community; and to illustrate the complexities of organisational change and the strategies that institutional entrepreneurs can use to overcome resistance to change from key stakeholders.

The case is set in October 2017 against the backdrop of the pending unbundling of Old Mutual plc into four new independent businesses, and the subsequent relisting of Old Mutual Ltd on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa. The head of responsible investment at Old Mutual Investment Group and the main protagonist of the case, Jon Duncan, is considering what the subsequent relisting will mean for the responsible investing programmes that he has set up over the past six years. The case goes on to describe how responsible investment principles were supported through the implementation of ESG integration and active ownership strategies. It also examines recent developments in ESG product innovations and demonstrates another technique available to responsible investment practitioners in the form of best-in-class ESG screening. The case ends with Duncan contemplating the strategic priorities of the RI team moving forward, and how the managed separation might impact on the RI agenda. It provides prompts for students to discuss and formulate a strategy for advancing the aims of responsible investing.

The case is aimed at postgraduate-level students enrolled in a management-related degree programme such as an MBA, and covers both sustainable and responsible finance and institutional entrepreneurship theory.

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 1: Accounting and Finance