Case studies

Case explains how female leaders are more concerned about social issues the industry in which they operate could resolve. Obo-Nia, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, showed concern for resolving the digital divide in Africa and offered a collaborative solution. The case also suggests how female CEOs invest in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that could create a competitive advantage for firms. The case also discusses gender diversity issues in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and how Vodafone Ghana’s CEO tried to enhance gender diversity in the telecommunication sector and Vodafone. Obo-Nai did not emphasize gender diversity from a CSR perspective but believed in a business case for gender diversity, as an increase in participation of women in the STEM workforce could help the telecommunication sector innovate faster and resolve the digital divide challenge while also empowering women working from the informal sector.

What is the significance of a digital divide and the societal role of the telecommunication sector; Why female CEOs are more concerned about CSR and how CSR makes not charity but business case; Why female CEOs are more inclined toward collaborative strategies and how stakeholders are involved in collaborative strategies for reducing the digital divide; Exploring various strategies for enhancing gender diversity in the STEM field and the significance of gender diversity in the STEM field.

The case is about the challenges faced by Patricia Obo-Nai, the first female CEO of Vodafone Ghana, to bridge the digital divide in Africa while doing so in a profitable manner. Obo-Nai was an engineer by profession and won several awards as she rose to the post of CEO in Vodafone Ghana in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as making internet service freely available in certain schools and universities so that education could continue. Obo-Nai also emphasized gender diversity within Vodafone and urged other telecommunication players to focus on gender diversity from a social responsibility perspective because it was essential for innovation. Under Obo-Nai’s leadership, Vodafone itself launched several new products. She called for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to bridge the digital divide and to make 4G internet affordable in Africa. Obo-Nai collaborated with competitors like MTN Ghana to enhance Vodafone Ghana’s roaming services.

This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate-level business and management courses, especially international business and society, CSR and leadership courses. Graduate students in public policy may also find the case compelling.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS5: International Business; CCS10: Public Sector Management

The “Anti-Racism in my Pocket” case illustrates how collaborative entrepreneurial leadership can build on personal experiences, expertise and a desire to change the status quo to support racial equity. The case will support students’ critical thinking skills and further heighten their understanding of the contributions of women in leadership, anti-racism and the role of technology. Moreover, the case is motivating for students with aspirations of using business skills and knowledge to contribute to social equity.

After completing this case, students should be able to identify the role of marketing in the development, implementation and evaluation of a behavior change initiative, the Anti-Racism Action Nuggets anti-racism training program; analyze qualitative and quantitative data to assess the impact of the Anti-Racism Action Nuggets Pilot using a logic model; identify marketing opportunities, challenges and strategies to scale the Anti-Racism Action Nuggets series for a broader impact; and discuss the relationship of gender in strategic positioning and marketing leadership to the development of the Anti-Racism Action Nuggets (Optional).

This case charts the development of an anti-racism training series by two friends, Allison Plyer (she/her) and Valerie (Val) Uccellani (she/her), called Anti-Racism Action Nuggets. The two protagonists aimed to change individual behaviors to reduce structural racism through lessons that were delivered in text messages to participants. Once the course is completed, they conduct a test pilot with members of NOW, LOVE, a women’s organization in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the end of the case, students are provided with the qualitative and quantitative pilot data for their analysis to recommend next steps and important marketing considerations for the Anti-Racism Action Nuggets series.

Undergraduate, graduate and executive education

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 8: Marketing

This paper aims to describe the cross-channel challenges experienced by a leading US fashion retailer and illustrates the adaptation to consumer needs as led by a female divisional head and female executive.

The teaching objectives include to understand the assortment planning complexities experienced by merchandise managers; address critical issues surrounding channel strategies; identify the data needs for assortment improvement and cross-channel management; investigate responsive solutions for customer-focused assortment diversification; and explore the challenges associated with continual retail channel adaptation.

The fashion retailer Spirit & Free (S&F) (pseudonym) is a Fortune 500 retailer. As a multi-channel retailer, S&F is proud of the consistency of the brand’s identity across channels. However, recently, S&F has noticed a difference between their mobile (m-commerce, social commerce) and in-store/e-commerce customers. Through this case study, students will follow the Women’s Apparel Divisional Merchandise Manager and explore how the business will maintain a consistent brand identity and capture both sets of customers through assortment planning. Resources will be provided for assortment planning analysis, and students will be asked to consider assortment opportunities regarding category mix and pricing strategy.

The case would be relevant to upper-level undergraduate courses or introductory master's level course in retail, management, fashion merchandising and omni-channel retail.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 8: Marketing

The case would be relevant to undergraduate level or an introductory master's level course in operations management (OM), supply chain management and production.

The case can be used as part of a core OM course in the MBA curriculum or any OM or supply chain elective.

As a highly diversified manufacturing services company, Jabil's S&OP solution supports customers across many industries such as automotive, cloud computing, consumer packaging, healthcare, mobile, retail and telecommunications. Jabil's customers expect a rapid and accurate response to their demand within hours. Previously, Jabil used a series of legacy disconnected planning tools, unsynchronized data required time-consuming manipulation with Excel. Processes were conducted in siloes leading to a “load and chase” approach, which resulted in excess inventory, component shortages and inadequate capacity. The case focuses on one of the Jabil executives, Lizet Tymon (she). Struggling with the issues caused by the disconnected planning tools, Lizet champions implementing a fully integrated suite of services (built on top of the Kinaxis' RapidResponse software platform). The technology solution proposed by Lizet was ultimately implemented across the company, and the project received high marks, and it opened up career opportunities for her. However, it was not a smooth ride at the very beginning. The case focuses on the issues experienced by Lizet, as she is introducing a new technological solution approach and trying to earn support from her team, her peers, her immediate supervisor, her customers and her higher-level executives.

The teaching objectives include: understanding and appreciating the supply chain complexities experienced by a global contract manufacturer; helping students think critically regarding the issues around the sales and ops planning; identifying the data needs for the operation and management of a worldwide, connected supply chain; investigating agile solution approaches for information sharing, decision-making and decision-sharing; and exposing the challenges associated with a large-scale technology adaptation.

This case study describes the supply chain challenges experienced by a global manufacturing solutions provider and illustrates the technology adaptation led by a female executive.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics

The primary target audience for this teaching case is postgraduate business students, especially students of digital marketing, strategy and e-commerce, social media marketing, entrepreneurship and sports marketing. This teaching case is intended to be used as a case study in postgraduate business programmes such as Master of Business Administration, a specialist masters programme such as MM (entrepreneurship), postgraduate diploma in management, as well as selected executive education programmes.

This case can be used in the subject areas of digital marketing, strategy and e-commerce, social media marketing, entrepreneurship and sports marketing.

This case looks at South African fitness Instapreneur Candice Bodington and how her business trajectory unfolded at the same time of the successful Australian Kayla Itsines. The case begins with Bodington considering options for her brand in January 2020. Following her business, Candibod’s, fast initial growth via Instagram, the case tracks its development while also glancing at the enormous success of Itsines and her Sweat with Kayla app. However, as Bodington faces her own health care, the future and next steps of a brand built on social media becomes less certain. The case ends just a few months later with the unfolding effects of Covid-19 and a whole new host of uncertainties, especially in the fitness industry and Bodington having to reconsider her brand’s options.

The learning outcome of this paper is as follows: to understand the challenges of building an online brand. To evaluate the effect of brand communities as a growth strategy. To analyse the impact of social media platforms as a brand-building tool. To critically assess the effect of changing industry dynamics and technology on consumer behaviour. To evaluate how brands can navigate the negative implications of social media. To understand brand differentiation. To understand the strategic decisions associated with brand repositioning.

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 8: Marketing.

Digital marketing, Brand building, Social media marketing, Strategic marketing

This case was successfully taught in a second-year MBA marketing course on the science of behavior change. It would be suitable for first-year MBA and executive education programs. The material would work well on courses on women in business, women as leaders and women in data science. The female protagonist creates a tech platform and uses a data-driven model.

Marketing – it was used in a module around leveraging existing insights and creating new ones in marketing strategies. The course is structured around a “pathway to behavior change” framework. This case focuses on the analysis segment of the model, introduces targeted behavioral challenge(s) and lends itself to identifying consumer insights, biases and behaviors. It uses that analysis to learn about the market, competition and gaps to fill.

This case uses a startup in the retail industry to explore the leverage of behavioral science to enrich a business model and structure a marketing campaign. The material unfolds the testing of an innovative process and use of persuasion to align business practices with human behavior and scale. In addition, it gives the opportunity to discuss how a minimal tech solution could bring in market data and provide a test platform to larger clients.The founder of Rohvi, Sara Whiffen, created a platform that allowed shoppers to buy clothing items from local retail stores, use them and after a few wears, return the items for partial store credit. The business model was based on Whiffen’s experience in the automobile industry with used cars. Following her first few years in the business, Whiffen had to make some decisions around engaging clients on two sides – retailers and consumers. How can an innovative startup leverage behavioral science to persuade multiple stakeholders?

• Learn marketing concepts in material and a tech platform featuring a female protagonist and team; • practice evaluating a product and capturing value using behavioral science; • understand consumer/business biases and practice forming and delivering a persuasive message; • learn to leverage and create new insights to aid behavior change in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) contexts; • analyze behavioral insights to identify new opportunities in a competitive marketplace; • unfold a framework to explore consumer motivation in recommerce; and • explore the use of experimentation in changing consumer behavior and improving decision-making.

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

Females need to be represented in core business education curriculum such as data analysis in addition to classes focused on social equity and business. This all female executive team pursued an innovative process built on a technology platform using a data-driven model to gain enterprise clients. The material offers an opportunity to explore sustainability.

CSS 8: Marketing

Srikumar Misra founded Milk Mantra as a milk producing and selling company in the state of Odisha, India in 2010. The company subsequently diversified into milk-based products such as yogurt and cottage cheese and spread its foray into the neighboring states. In 2014, the company had to overcome a few challenges from the macro environment as well as think of a marketing and communication strategy to gain competitive advantage.

The case is based on the primary research and has been developed using interviews of the company representatives and documents made available from the company. Wherever required, written permission has been obtained from the company representatives.

This case could be a part of the Marketing Management course in a graduate/undergraduate program in Business Management. The case could also be a part of a Brand Management or Integrated Marketing Communications course in the same program for specialized subjects such as branding a generic product or brand communications. This case could also be used for a short discussion in a distribution and logistics course.

The specific topics, which could be facilitated through this case, are the 4 Ps of marketing, distribution and marketing strategy. The case also relies on the theories of branding and marketing communication.

This case involves the March of Dimes (MOD) Foundation, the “leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health.” MOD’s mission was to support medical research, organize volunteer workers, and provide community services and education to save babies’ lives (www.marchofdimes.org). The strategic issue in the case involves creating awareness of both the mission and services of MOD and the critical issue driving that mission – premature births. The organization must create a desire for various target markets to take action in response to the problem. The main protagonist is Doug Staples, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications.

Data were collected via personal interviews with the primary protagonists, Doug Staples, and Mike Swenson of the Barkley agency. The MOD provided quantitative Gallup studies they commissioned, as well as documents unveiling the roll-out in the San Jose, CA region. The Barkley Agency provided qualitative data from a study which consisted of eight focus groups conducted in two markets and ten personal interviews. Secondary research was used to provide a support for industry and market data, to supplement organizational facts provided by the MOD, and to identify and link marketing theory to the situations provided in the case. The organization, facts and characters in this case were not disguised. MOD was consulted throughout the case development process.

This case study is recommended for marketing courses at the undergraduate level. It is most appropriate for marketing management, introductory marketing, or marketing strategy classes. Additionally, this case is a good fit for courses focused upon not-for-profit marketing issues.

The strongest opportunities to apply theory using this case relate to branding (see De Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998 for a content analysis of the brand literature). These theories include brand image and personality (Aaker, 1997; Belk, 1998; Grohmann, 2009), brand awareness (Aaker, 2002), brand involvement and customer loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009), brand engagement (Sprott et al., 2009), brand relationships (Breivik and Thorbjornsen, 2008), and brand equity (Aaker, 2002, 2008). Specifically, question 2 addresses brand personality, and questions 3 and 4 explore relationships with the brand such as the emotional power of the brand and brand association. Question 6 focuses on positioning strategy.

This case explores the concept of crowdfunding by examining the background of the fundraising model in addition to the successful campaign, “Let’s Send Kids to Harvard: Vidal Scholarship Fund.” In this campaign, Brandon Stanton leveraged the large following of his photo blog, “Humans of New York,” to raise more than one million dollars for students in an inner-city middle school. The fundraiser received national attention and broke the record for the most contributors to a single campaign on the popular crowdfunding website, Indiegogo. Students are encouraged to think critically about what elements work together to create a successful crowdfunding campaign.

Secondary data were reviewed to provide a thorough review of the history of crowdfunding as well as to chronicle the events that led up to the successful crowdfunding campaign highlighted in the case study.

This case is appropriate for university marketing, social media, public relations, and entrepreneurship courses. This case has a difficulty level appropriate for sophomore-, junior-, or senior-level courses.

Republic Electric is faced with the need to engage in a systematic process of evaluating vendors for its just-in-time manufacturing. The case gives students the opportunity to think through the process for vendor selection in the context of real-world constraints for a specific organization, to become acquainted with the Delphi technique for developing consensus, to gain hands-on experience with linear averaging, to engage in calculations of value indexes, and to recognize the marketing implications of effectively evaluating vendors. A key takeaway for students is the fact that vendor selection decisions are multifaceted and will vary among organizations depending on each organization’s particular strategic needs, operational constraints, and human judgment.

The case is based upon a consulting assignment with the company that is represented by Republic Electric. The experience was gained first-hand by one of the authors.

This case is targeted at undergraduate students in marketing, materials management, supply chain management, and purchasing, but can work well in a variety of business courses in which supply chains or the development of evaluation tools is studied, to include graduate classes.

The concept of vendor assessment is well developed in the literature and represents a pragmatic, but often neglected, step in the practice of choosing suppliers.