Search results

After completion of the case study, students will be able to identify and discuss ways in which informal financing of the kind discussed in the case study can provide new or different opportunities for access to alternative financing schemes; assess the role of“social capital” in micro and small business development and to understand and apply the role of social capital for female entrepreneurs in the Global South; critically analyse and reflect on the new role of digital technologies in challenging traditional patriarchal social norms and exclusion and ultimately be able to evaluate the role of digital technologies in terms of its practical implications for female entrepreneurs; and understand the role played by socio-cultural and historical contexts in female-owned/managed businesses within informal sectors of the economy. Furthermore, the students should be able to discuss how these contexts provide opportunities or challenges for actionable/robust/relevant business plans for female entrepreneurs.

This case study aims to create a platform for classroom conversations around: context of entrepreneurship in informal economies, challenges of accessing finance, women entrepreneurship, opportunities of digital entrepreneurship and resource acquisition and social capital. Overall, this case study intends to inspire and cultivate additional voices to advance authentic understanding of informal business practices in the financial sector that go beyond traditional formal western settings. This case study is based on a true story relating to the “sou-sou” financing system – an informal financing scheme – originating from West Africa which has been transported to other parts of the world including Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and other parts of Africa. The characters involve Maria, the main protagonist; Eunice, from LAC; and Fidelia from West Africa. With first-hand information from Eunice and Fidelia, Maria learnt about the ideological principles and the offerings of flexibility, trust, mutual benefits and kinship of the sou-sou system and was inspired to integrate digital technologies as a sustainable game changer for accessing microfinance. This case study draws on the contextual understanding of the economy in the Global South as well as the gender-based aspects of entrepreneurship as key aspects of women entrepreneurship and digital entrepreneurship. The sou-sou system is presented as a practical solution to the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Global South to access finances, and the integration of digital technologies is considered instrumental not only in reinforcing the traditional system but also in transforming the entrepreneurial prospects for these women.

This teaching activity is aimed at postgraduate students in Master of Management and Master of Business Administration programmes. It can also be used for short executive courses, specialised PhD seminars and advanced bachelor programmes. This case study could be taught in the field of entrepreneurship in areas related to technology, gender, women entrepreneurship and financing in the context of the Global South.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Data from HCL company and their corporate entrepreneurship activities were sourced using interviews and discussions. Secondary data was collected from the company website and other information available in the public domain.

This case narrates activities undertaken by the Enterprise Technology Office (ETO) of HCL Technologies Infrastructure Service Division to build the Corporate Entrepreneurship function. Around 2015–2016, the ETO started engaging with multiple people and organizations associated with the technology ecosystem outside the firm boundary for novel technologies and solutions. These entities included venture capitalists and start-ups. The ETO also began engaging with internal teams and existing customers to promote the identified novel technologies and innovative solutions. The ETO function grew organically by hiring resources from internal and external pools. ETO also undertook specific programs to increase the involvement of internal teams in their initiatives, like the Joint Exploration Program. ETO explored several options to further the ecosystem innovation strategy and institutionalize corporate entrepreneurship activities. The ETO team deliberated on ways to align the stakeholder goals and evaluate if technology could play a role.

This case can be used in any course on “Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” “Strategic Management of Technology Enterprises” or any course focused on managing technology and innovation for graduate (MBA) or executive participants.

The learning objectives (or expected learning objectives and outcomes) are to be achieved by linking them with particular concepts, theories and models. These include conducting a situational analysis of the social business, namely, Lilly Apartments’ Welfare Association; explaining the characteristics and mindset of the leadership, particularly the social entrepreneurial leaders; analysing the conflict among the team members; and designing strategic solutions for combating crises and attaining operations’ effectiveness.

Lilly Apartments’ Welfare Association Karachi was registered under the Act of 1860 of the Government of Pakistan. The members established this Association to oversee the affairs of the maintenance of the apartments, including the provision of utilities, particularly water, sanitation, lifts, generators, parking, security and a park with a small play area for children. The front-burner issue of the Association consisted of mis-governance (causing underperformance), including maintenance of buildings within apartments; recovery of funds from the past executive committee (EC) members due to their massive corruption; managing defaulters’ issues (i.e., the members who did not pay their monthly maintenance fees) and deficiency of funds; inefficient and corrupt practices of the majority of the employees, including one manager and two supervisors; and task-related and personal conflicts between the leadership members. The EC of the Association was elected every year and presently it had only four months left. The research design used for this case study involved conducting 12 interviews, four each involving EC members, former EC members and senior residents, which were analysed to learn the challenges and achievements of the Association. Moreover, pertinent records of the Association were reviewed. The canons of research ethics and soundness were applied.

This case study is suitable for the students of social entrepreneurship or strategy or strategy and leadership. The study level is for graduates in management science, including MBA and EMBA students. This case study is suitable for teaching at any point but ideally near the middle or end of the aforementioned courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

After completion of this case study, students will be able to describe the funding path for start-ups, including the amounts and profiles of the usual investors or sources of funds, according to the moment in their life cycle and the characteristics of the initiative; highlight the challenges faced by start-up founders in weak entrepreneurial ecosystems and risky institutional environments; and argue in favor of or against different modes and typical instruments of venture capital (VC) investments in the early stages of new businesses, each of them different regarding dilutions, valuation potential, depth of negotiations and term sheets.

Asistensi, a technology and telemedicine start-up founded in 2020 in Venezuela by three entrepreneurs (Andrés Simón González-Silén, Luis Enrique Velásquez and Armando Baquero), raised US$3m in less than a year in a seed round in which it attracted the attention of professional VC funds such as Mountain Nazca, Alma Mundi Ventures and 468 Capital. Everything was set for launching operations in Mexico and the Dominican Republic in April 2021. However, a series of difficulties led to higher expenditure than planned, prompting the entrepreneurs to seek additional capital. The decision on the financial instrument to be associated with the potential valuation and shareholder dilution figures has been posed as a dilemma.

The case study focuses on understanding the start-up financing process. It can be used effectively in management- and finance-related subjects for graduate students taking introductory topics in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance, as well as introductory executive education courses in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance and VC.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS3: Entrepreneurship

This case aims to study the growth, evolution, and social innovation of iThrive Games, a socially minded initiative that aims to create meaningful opportunities using technology for teens to enhance the knowledge, mindsets, and skills they need to thrive through development and across the continuum of mental disorder to wellness. iThrive's focus has been on creating “meaningful games”—that is, games that promote health and well-being of teen players. Founded in 2014 by Dorothy Batten, President of DN Batten Foundation, the organization's mission was to collaborate with game developers, partner with teens across the game development cycle (ideation to testing), and provide resources to foster teen thriving through gameplay. To do so, the organization took a unique social entrepreneurial approach. Drawing on a positive psychology framework and building the brand among key stakeholders including game developers, researchers, funders, youth, educators, and parents, the organization orchestrated a community dedicated to advancing the meaningful games field, and in doing so, have widespread impact.

The data for the case is a mix of both primary and secondary data, from the following sources: – personal interviews with the protagonist, Sofana Dahlan; – Tashkeil website; – official documents provided by the company: ■ “Tashkeil – Corporate Brief,” ■ “Saudi National Creative Initiative – Activities Report 2016”; and ■ “Tashkeil Global Company”. – published media sources.

The case outlines the story of Sofana Dahlan (Sofana) (she/her), a social entrepreneur and one of the first few women lawyers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She established Tashkeil as a social enterprise, helping creative entrepreneurs (creatives) with strategic, operational and legal inputs, thus enabling the creative industry in different parts of the Arab world, focussing on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Her story can be used to inspire students on how a female entrepreneur fought against an extremely restrictive social and cultural environment and achieved her goals. It helps them to understand the challenges faced by women in the context of the Arab world and the key attributes required for them to succeed as an entrepreneur, especially in the context of certain social and cultural barriers. It also helps to understand the importance of resilience in entrepreneurs and to discuss how entrepreneurs can become more resilient.

The case can be used mainly in undergraduate Business Management Programs in courses such as Entrepreneurship, with specific reference to Women Entrepreneurship. The case would be a good fit for courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Creative Businesses.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to evaluate the journey of launching a business in an emerging market context and judge how opportunities and challenges can be navigated to build sustainable enterprises; assess the relevance of individual attributes and process skills that are necessary for entrepreneurial agency to transform social structures through entrepreneurial action; formulate an argument highlighting the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in growing a competitive business in an emerging market context; make an informed decision and critique how accelerators and incubators affect the development of ideas and access to finance in South Africa; and propose various strategic options available for technology entrepreneurs, considering the challenges they face in emerging economies.

In April 2023, Queen Ndlovu, CEO and founder of QP Drone Tech, a provider of drone business solutions, was considering options to fulfil her original dream of manufacturing drones in South Africa. She had encountered obstacles to achieving the same in 2019, and had decided to focus on providing commercial drone consulting services. However, her dream had not extinguished, and in 2022, she decided to restart her efforts. She found practical support from The Innovation Hub, an incubator that was supporting her business, which enabled her to enhance the prototype of her drone. She then had to think about how she would manufacture drones locally by ensuring she had access to production infrastructure, funding, partners and customers. Would she be able to gain a competitive advantage that would differentiate her from competitors? Or should she reconsider whether she should be manufacturing in the first place, as there are risks and benefits for smaller businesses in this regard.

This case is intended for discussion in postgraduate diploma in business and Master of Business Administration courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Data for the case came from public sources, including legal proceedings, court filings and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The authors perused hundreds of court documents and identified 28 that were most relevant to this case. The authors also used press interviews with the women highlighted in the case. The authors have no relationship with the company and no one from the company has reviewed the information presented in this case. As the case is drawn from sworn legal testimonies, interviews and related documents in the public domain, the authors did not have to seek approval for publication.

Pinterest touted itself as “the nicest place on the Internet.” It had an almost 80% female user base and purported to have an inclusive culture that embraced diversity. However, in June 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, two former female employees of color violated their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to publicly accuse Pinterest of racial and gender discrimination. In August 2020, Pinterest’s former Chief Operating Officer, Francoise Brougher, filed a lawsuit charging the company with gender discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination, and authored a public blog post titled, The Pinterest Paradox: Cupcakes and Toxicity, detailing her own experience with the company’s discriminatory culture. Three days later 236 of Pinterest’s 2,545 employees staged a virtual walkout and 445 employees signed a petition in an attempt to change Pinterest’s policies and culture. The case provides a brief overview of Pinterest, including its mission, values and organizational culture, and details several incidents and complaints by female and minority employees. The case questions whether employee complaints are a relatively narrow issue involving disgruntled former employees who did not fit at the organization or a much broader issue involving discrimination and managerial neglect in creating and maintaining a nondiscriminatory, inclusive culture. Students are encouraged to evaluate the situation in which Co-Founder, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Ben Silbermann finds himself, evaluate the actions taken and decide if Silbermann should take any additional actions to address the discrimination claims and ensure a positive culture for all employees.

This case is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate level courses in organizational behavior, human resource management and business law or any course where discrimination and workplace culture are discussed.

Alpha Design Technologies Private Limited (ADTL) was started in 2004 by Colonel H.S. Shankar after his retirement from services in the Indian Army and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Aggressively growing the company from US$0.04m in 2004 to US$100m in 2022, he proved that age was not a barrier to success in entrepreneurship. His aspirations were to gain a greater presence in foreign markets through higher exports. After reading this case study, the students will be able to understand how the defence sector evolved in India and the role of private-sector enterprises; recognise the risks and opportunities in the changing dynamics of defence sector in India; believe that the ideas and capabilities of an entrepreneur increase with relevant previous experiences; appreciate the ambition and managerial capabilities of an entrepreneur even at the age of 60; apply Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour on the entrepreneurial journey of Shankar and formulate strategies for growth.

Started in the year 2004, ADTL specialises in manufacturing defence-related products. ADTL was cofounded by Shankar, at the age of 60. His experience of working with the Indian Army and BEL in various capacities gave him the proficiency to start a venture on his own after his retirement. The ecosystem in India was favourable for ADTL as the Government opened up the defence sector for private players. Nevertheless, age was not a barrier for this senior citizen to tap the opportunity and work aggressively to grow his venture from US$0.04m in 2004 to US$100m in 2022. By 2023, ADTL had an employee strength of 1,200 including 650 engineers, and they emerged as a market leader in Software Defined Radio space. They manufactured around 200 different products for defence and space. ADTL exported 60% of the defence products to countries such as Israel, the USA and Germany. Moving forward, the dream for Shankar was to make a mark in the defence geography of the world through ADTL, by improving its export volumes and also through strategic alliances.

This case study can be taught to Master of Business Administration/postgraduate degree in management students as a part of the introductory course on entrepreneurship and strategy. This case study can be used specifically to make the students understand the role of private sector in the manufacturing of defence products after the liberalisation policy of the Government of India. The intention was not only to protect the nation from the threat posed by neighbouring countries but also to promote exports of defence products to other countries to improve foreign exchange earnings.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case is designed to be used with the digital business model framework developed by Peter Weill and Stephanie Woerner of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Weill and Woerner, 2015) and is referred to as the W & W framework. This approach provides a useful structure for thinking through the strategic options facing environments ripe for digital transformation.

Research for this case was conducted through face-to-face interviews with the protagonist, as well as through a review of their business planning documents and other data and documentation provided by the founder. Some of the market and industry data were obtained using secondary research and industry reports. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed to ensure accuracy.

The case follows the story of Kurt Waltenbaugh, a Minnesota entrepreneur who shared the dream of using data analytics to reduce costs within the US health-care system. In early 2014, Waltenbaugh and a physician colleague founded Carrot Health to bring together their personal experience and expertise in both consumer data analytics and health care. From the beginning, they focused on how to use data analytics to help identify high-risk/high-cost patients who had not yet sought medical treatment. They believed that they could use these insights to encourage early medical interventions and, as a result, lower the long-term cost of care.

Carrot’s initial success found them in a consultative role, working on behalf of insurance companies. Through this work, they honed their capabilities by helping their clients combine existing claims data with external consumer behavioral data to identify new potential customers. These initial consulting contracts gave Carrot the opportunity to develop its analytic tools, business model and, importantly, to earn some much-needed cash flow during the start-up phase. However, they also learned that, while insurance companies were willing to purchase data insights for one-off market expansion projects, it was much more difficult to motivate them to use data proactively to eliminate costs on an ongoing basis. Waltenbaugh believed that Carrot’s greatest potential lay in their ability to develop predictive models of health outcomes, and this case explores Carrot’s journey through strategic decisions and company transformation.

This case is intended for either an undergraduate or graduate course on entrepreneurial strategy. It provides an effective introduction to the unique structure and constraints which apply to an innovative start-up within the health-care industry. The case also serves as a platform to explore the critical criteria to be considered when developing a digital transformation strategy and exposing students to the digital business model developed by Weill and Woerner (2015) at MIT (referred to in this instructor’s manual as the W&W framework). The case was written to be used in an advanced strategy Master of Business Administration (MBA) class, an undergraduate specialty health-care course or as part of a health-care concentration in a regular MBA, Master of Health Care Administration (MHA) or Master of Public Health (MPH). It may be taught toward the end of a course on business strategy when students are building on generic strategy frameworks and adapting their strategic thinking to the characteristics of specific industries or sectors. However, the case can also be taught as part of a course on health-care innovation in which case it also serves well as an introduction to the health-care payments and insurance system in the USA. Finally, the case can be used in a specialized course on digital transformation strategy in which case it serves as an introduction to the MIT W&W framework.

The case is particularly well-suited to students who are familiar with traditional frameworks for business strategy and business models. The analysis builds on this knowledge and introduces students interested in learning about the opportunities and challenges of digital strategy. Equally, the case works well for students with clinical backgrounds, who are interested in how business strategy can influence changes within the health-care sphere. Finally, an important aspect of the case design was to develop students’ analytical confidence by encouraging them to “get their hands dirty” and to carry out some basic exploratory data analytics themselves. As such, the case requires students to combine and correlate data and to experience the potentially powerful combination of clinical and consumer data. Instructors should find that the insights from these activities give students unique insights into the potential for of data analytics to move health care from a reactive/treatment ethos to a proactive/intervention ethos. This experience can be particularly revealing for students with clinical backgrounds who may initially be resistant to the use of clinical data by commercial organizations.