Case studies

Macro-Economics.

Undergraduate and MBA.

The COVID 19 pandemic-related restrictions devastated South Africa’s economy in 2020 and although the restrictions were generally less damaging than in 2020, the government had to budget for vaccinations and rebuild the economy. Public service unions had just announced that they were demanding an increase of 4% above inflation for their members and that they were preparing for a strike. They were bitter about the fact that the South African Government had withdrawn from the last year of a three-year wage agreement in February 2020 and their members had not received an increase for the two years. These demands and Finance Minister Mboweni’s response to them had to consider the structural and cyclical impact on the fiscus and economy.

The learning outcomes are as follows: understand the general objectives of fiscal policy and stakeholders’ interests; understand the tradeoffs in fiscal policy and the implications of taking a position; and make recommendations based on reasoned judgements about those recommendations.

Undergraduate and MBA level courses on Macro Economics.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

In this case, a senior business analyst at the online travel agency Trek-ation struggles with the decision of whether to pursue a potentially lucrative idea. Her innovation team had proposed revising the online pricing algorithm in order to use the cookies and other information from customers’ web browser to customize pricing for flights and hotels. Although she wanted to increase revenue for the company and meet her targets, she was also concerned not only about the backlash if this tactic was revealed to the public but also, more importantly, about both the fairness of this practice and the violation of customer privacy norms.

Discussing statistical error and research design problems and the organizational implications of delivering “good news” at all cost.

This case can be used on basic courses of Public Policy, Marketing Research and Quantitative Methods.

MIDEPLAN on July 2012 showed the results of the CASEN (Caracterización Socio-Económica or Socio-Economical Characterization) survey of 2011. The results showed that poverty was lowered by 0.6 per cent and was greatly highlighted by the media. Opposition coalition and academics started to ask questions about statistical error, which was not yet known. It was revealed that the government asked Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), a public organization dependent on the United Nations (UN) that was helping Chile to manage the CASEN survey, to review the results and incorporate a variable “y11,” but academics questioned it due to comparability reasons. The statistical error was revealed and it was 0.8 per cent. On October 2012, CEPAL decided to stop helping Chilean institutions.

The key analysis and conclusions which should arise as a result of teaching this case are: The relevance of the statistical error as a key component of research to evaluate data; the importance of fully implementing research design and accuracy of every step to reach valid results; analyze and discuss organizational implications of delivering “good news” at all cost.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email pfarias@unegocios.cl to request teaching notes.

Business Management and Strategy.

The case study is relevant for undergraduate and post-graduate management degrees. It includes courses such as business management, corporate ethics and change management.

This case study illustrates one of the important initiatives that the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) has undertaken to help save the atmosphere and the environment. This case study describes the Paperless Day initiative that EAD launched in 2008 and how it was carried out for five years. The study also describes how EAD implemented this initiative internally.

Creating awareness and encouraging individuals in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere to reduce their use of paper, water and energy for a cleaner environment.

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

Project structuring.

The case can be used for MBA, Executive MBA, Faculty Development Program (FDP) and Management Development Program (MDP) to introduce them to the selection of procurement method, concept of value for money and project structuring in the context of the education sector.

Saryu Secondary Schools of Excellence Samiti (SSSES) functioned under the chairmanship of the Minister of Human Resource Development and was running 584 Saryu Secondary School of Excellence (SSSE) as of March 15, 2013. SSSE were focused on providing quality education to poor children, primarily from rural areas. In January 2013, SSSES was given a mandate to open 75 additional schools within one year and 500 schools within five years in rural and semirural areas to meet the demands of secondary education in India.

The Managing Director of SSSES, was preparing for the meeting to be held on March 31, 2013 to discuss various options for development of the mandated schools including involvement of private player under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) model.

The case introduces the participants to the challenges in the education sector including public delivery system, poor economic status of students, selection of appropriate procurement method (public delivery versus buying of service from private sector) and project structuring issues. Specific objectives are: introduce participants to the challenges of delivering education services; establish the benefit of PFI in social infrastructure domain and introduce the participants to the concept of value for money; identify risks and returns under various structures; and impress on importance of non-commercial issues which may shape a project.

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

Public Sector Management and Strategy

This case will be useful for courses in information technology (IT) innovation, public–private partnership (PPP) and strategic management. However, the use of the case will differ on the basis of the target audience who could be students of master's course or executive development course. Detailed discussion can be done on co-innovation strategy followed in a public–private partnership and to understand how a PPP can be successful in enterprise solutions. Further, the understanding on how e-procurement and e-tendering solutions work can be gained through this case. This case should be positioned when the discussion for the planning strategy of IT innovation takes place.

SAP was a market leader in enterprise application software and empowered people across the globe to work more efficiently. The e-procurement solution for OILGIAN was managed by SAP LABS India. OILGIAN entrusted SAP with the task to design and implement the e-tendering solution. SAP appointed Ramakrishna Potluri, Lead Consultant, SAP, to manage the design and implementation of the e-tendering module as a part of e-procurement solution for the public sector. The reporting and the security concerns were stated by OILGIAN, and Potluri reassured that his competent team would comply with the needs. The main predicaments that he was going through were that how best he could take the proposition forward. Should he create the innovative solutions in-house or co-create with the customers? Which business models should he follow for this public–private co-innovation to be a predecessor of successful projects?

The case illustrates the following objectives: to discuss the co-innovation strategy followed in a public–private partnership; to understand how a public–private partnership can be successful in enterprise solutions; and to understand how e-procurement and e-tendering solutions work.

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

Power and politics.

This case is suitable for all levels of students, undergraduate MBA to Executive MBA classes and practitioners. Assignment questions are designed from the perspective of teaching this case to a business student audience.

A raging dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam was in the national spotlight after mild tremors shook nearby areas. The Mullaperiyar Dam was located in Idukki district of Kerala in India. The dam was filled to its maximum permissible level of 136 ft. Tamil Nadu wanted the storage capacity to be increased by raising the dam height from 136 ft (41.5 m) to 142 ft (43 m) as per a 2006 Supreme Court directive to meet the growing irrigation needs of the state. The dam was vital for people living in the drought-prone districts of Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram of Tamil Nadu. It irrigated about 220,000 acres and supplied drinking water to Madurai city and several towns. Kerala on the other hand wants a new dam as it feared that a strong earthquake might damage the existing dam. Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy said: “I strongly believe that only a new dam can provide safety to the people of Kerala. We are only concerned about the safety of the people. But, unfortunately, there is a feeling in Tamil Nadu that the situation of panic here is a created one. That is not at all correct”. However, Tamil Nadu Government said the dam was safe as it had undergone periodic repairs during 1980-1994 with Kerala Government's approval. With the Kerala Government screaming loud over the danger that could be caused by the alleged obsolete 116 year old Mullaperiyar Dam on safety grounds of people who live downstream, why is Tamil Nadu defiant on any debate that cites the decommission of the controversial dam? Is the Tamil Nadu Government overlooking the issue for its personal benefits by putting the lives of 3 million people at stake?

The case would fit in a course for power and politics. It would also be appropriate for a modular course on regional development planning.

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

Hospitality and tourism management; strategic management; marketing, transportation system management and human resource management.

Undergraduate in business and management and hospitality and tourism management.

This teaching case outlines the historical background, successes and challenges of the national airline of Jamaica. It shows how a national airline, which is a heritage asset and one that has provided nostalgic and sentimental value to the Jamaican people and its passengers, had to be divested. The airline has been faced with several challenges; the major one being high-operating costs, especially in light of the global economic recession. The case also highlights the various procedures carried out by the Government of Jamaica before and after the divestment arrangement and also by the acquirer, Caribbean Airlines.

The student should be able to: first, differentiate among the various strategic management terms and concepts used in the case; second, explain the importance of strategic decisions versus emotional decisions; third, assess the environmental factors that impacted Air Jamaica's operation; fourth, analyse the environmental factors that should have been considered by Caribbean Airlines before making the decision to acquire Air Jamaica; fifth, carry out a comparative analysis of the various corporate-level strategies to identify the best option for the Government of Jamaica; sixth, propose reasons why Caribbean Airlines acquired Air Jamaica.

Teaching note.

Organizational change.

Undergraduate and Masters level management programmes, particularly in management accounting, public sector accounting or organizational change.

This case study reflects organizational changes when Fijian Post and Telecom Company (FPTL) made a transition from a government department to a corporate entity. The focus of this case study is to examine some of the intra-organizational or micro-level changes that took place at the company. While the impetus for change may have originated in the Fiji Government's policies of public sector reform, the objective here is to outline the often slow pace of intra-organizational change within FPTL.

FPTL is a sole provider of postal and telecommunication services in Fiji. The organizational actors faced tensions and initially resisted the change to private business routines. However, with wider education and training on the change process, the resistance was reduced. At FPTL, a management team was set up to introduce commercial norms which were subsequently stabilized by the team through the ongoing process of educating employees on the benefits of changes and routinisation of new practices.The learning outcomes are to understand the difficulty of the change process and be aware of some of the resistance that may persist owing to cultural and political circumstance of a specific country.

Teaching note.

Segmentation, business impacts of decision making, hotel management.

Undergraduate Business or Finance.

The sales manager at a Caribbean hotel wonders whether to accept a large block booking at a discount rate from a group participating in an international sporting event. Do the promised publicity benefits justify the risk of turning away guests from higher paying segments?

The case should: highlight the potential for conflicts when customers from different segments with different needs and expectations find themselves in close contact with each other; identify the trade offs that may have to be made when acceptance of a large block booking might displace regular customers; and calculate the incremental financial impact of revenues from new business less revenues forgone when capacity limitations mean that some traditional business will have to be turned away to accommodate the block booking.

Teaching notes.