Case studies

The case was created via an interview of the protagonist in 2018 at the US Military Academy by the authors.

The case describes the dilemma First Lieutenant Williams faces when his platoon sergeant unexpectedly leaves. Organizational norms and accepted practices suggest Lieutenant Williams should choose the most senior squad leader, Staff Sergeant Boyer. The departing Platoon Sergeant even recommended Staff Sergeant Boyer. However, based on recent observations, Lieutenant Williams felt Staff Sergeant Boyer may not be the best fit. Instead, the lieutenant considered choosing the newest squad leader, Staff Sergeant Harrison, who seemed to be highly proficient, but had yet to prove himself. Before the lieutenant could fully weight his options, Staff Sergeant Boyer confronted him about a decision.

This case is designed for use in undergraduate courses on leadership and management. The case was not only designed primarily for teaching a lesson on organizational justice, but can also be used to integrate lessons on communication, power and influence, and decision making. Each of these elements is present in the case. The instructor can choose to incorporate them into the lesson for a more wholly encompassing lesson or choose to focus on only the organizational justice aspects at play in the case.

The fraud diamond theory, the COSO framework on internal control and theories of ethical leadership and ethical decision making are applied.

The details of this case were compiled using publicly available information, including court records and news reports. No modifications were made to the names of individuals or places mentioned in the case. All resources have been properly cited.

Employee embezzlement is a common issue in limited resource organizations when adequate controls are not in place to prevent or detect fraud. In such organizations, personal financial hardships can drive individuals to commit crimes that are out of character. This case is a story of a respectable small-town couple implicated in a near million dollar embezzlement scheme. Students are asked to consider what went wrong and propose solutions for the prevention of similar crimes. Lessons learned from this case emphasize the importance of ethical leadership, creating a strong ethical environment and how small unethical acts can escalate over time.

Instructors can utilize this case to teach the topics of ethical leadership and decision making, fraud prevention and detection and internal controls. The themes of this case fit well into any business ethics, accounting or auditing course at the undergraduate or graduate level. The case has been implemented in courses for full-time and part-time MBAs, and master’s programs in finance, human resources and accounting.

This case is one of a pair of cases used in a merger negotiation. It is designed to be used with “British Petroleum, Ltd.” (UVA-F-1263). One-half of the class prepares only the British Petroleum (BP) case, and one-half uses this case. BP and Amoco are considering a merger, and are in the process of negotiating a merger agreement. Macroeconomic assumptions, particularly forecasting future oil prices in an uncertain environment, and assumptions about Amoco's ability to reduce exploration and production costs make Amoco's future cash flows difficult to predict.

Five carefully constructed problems illustrate the concepts of second-market discounting, price skimming, limit pricing, random discounting, premium pricing, and bundling.

Discusses the structure of the Seven-Eleven Japan supply chain in terms of its facilities network, inventory management, distribution, and information.

To discuss how Seven-Eleven has made consistent supply chain choices to support its business strategy of providing convenience to customers. Points to how Seven-Eleven has used information and aggregation in transportation to improve supply chain responsiveness at a relatively low cost.

Trend Micro, an antivirus and Internet content security software provider, accidentally releases a flawed pattern file update that disables users' computers. The primary impact is on users in Japan, where 150,000 customers are affected. As the media press for answers and the stock price plummets, Eva Chen (CEO) and Akihiko Omikawa (president of Trend Micro Japan) must decide how to respond.

To consider a range of crisis management options, including apologizing, sharing information, and compensating harmed customers and illustrate the role of corporate culture in determining a company's response to a crisis. Trend Micro's strong customer orientation and collaborative culture guided its response and led to a full recovery in a short period of time.

A toy retailer plans to order a new product from an untested supplier for the winter holiday season. This exercise provides an opportunity for students to construct a model to determine optimal order quantity when demand is not known. Profits are calculated based on wholesale pricing, revenue-sharing, profit-sharing, and buyback contracts.

Controladora Comercial Mexicana, a Mexican retailer, had successfully managed the bankruptcy process and was ready to emerge from its problems, primarily caused by speculation and excessive debt, and begin operations anew. Was the restructured Comerci capable of regaining its position as a premier retailer, and more importantly, was the firm capable of repaying the high level of debt that it carried following bankruptcy reorganization? How strong was the reorganized firm? Had Comerci truly left its problems behind in bankruptcy court, or would history repeat itself? How could Comerci raise funds needed for growth – through additional debt? Though asset sales?

This case was researched using publicly available information, including the company's financial statements, bankruptcy filings, news stories about the bankruptcy and financial data bases (e.g. ISI Emerging Markets, Economática, Capital IQ, etc.) to obtain information about the competitors and from financial analysts.

This case is intended for advanced undergraduate or MBA electives in finance. Students should have a basic understanding of valuation and financing before attempting this case. The case could also be used in a corporate finance or banking class to illustrate bankruptcy and credit risk, or could be used in an international business class to illustrate the differences between USA and international bankruptcies.

Marketing.

Undergraduate and postgraduate management students.

Small scale business in India employ almost 30 million people contributing 50 per cent to industrial and 45 per cent to the total exports of the country. The rapid growth of internet has made it possible for the small scale start ups to reach its existing and potential customers without investing much. The case highlights this fact describing the journey of “Chumbak” a small scale business from an unknown brand to the foremost favourable funky product of India. Through this case the authors have tried to relinquish a synoptic view of how Chumbak has used varied social media platforms, to engage and connect with its customers. A survey of 147 customers of Chumbak customers shows that engagement through Facebook fan page of Chumbak positively impacts its purchase intention, brand image and leads to positive word of mouth.

The case highlights numerous dynamics of social media marketing and shows the recent social media promoting methods being used by the little scale businesses to ascertain on-going dialogues with their customers. The Case would facilitate the scholars in learning how these platforms may be used alone as a promotional tool not solely to reach the purchasers but additionally to type a higher complete awareness of the products with reference to Chumbak. The case explains that communication happening at varied social media platforms got to be tailored considering the sort of users.

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