Editorial
ISSN: 1544-9106
Publication date: 23 June 2022
Issue publication date: 23 June 2022
Citation
Morris, R.J. (2022), "Editorial", The CASE Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 533-537. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-07-2022-205Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
The benefits of being a TCJ Editor or Associate Editor & TCJ updates
I have been the Editor-in-Chief for The CASE Journal for several years. As I look back over my tenure I reflect on the positive aspects of serving in this role. Let me share some of them with you.
Paying Back: I learned everything I know about case writing, research and teaching from many experienced case writers that I met at case conferences such as CASE and NACRA. Through workshops, New Views sessions and case roundtables, I learned about the essential elements of cases and instructor’s manuals. I saw beautifully executed examples that illustrated effective learning objectives, teaching plans, and opening hooks. I modeled some of my cases after award winning cases I saw at conferences. In addition, I enjoyed the friendships I developed with other case writers. I didn’t feel so alone in my work anymore. Serving as Editor has allowed me to honor and thank those who came before me. I could continue to share the valuable lessons that I had been given.
Paying it Forward: Serving as TCJ Editor has also allowed me to share case writing, research, and teaching with newcomers. I have had the privilege of conducting webinars to develop new case writers. I have presented at the AACSB Dean’s conference to encourage Dean’s to support and value case research as important scholarly contributions. I have written more than 20 editorial letters on various aspects of case writing, research, and teaching to help new case writers and to advance the case method.
Improving Skills: I continue to learn much from my work as Editor. Case writers continue to submit truly excellent work that inspires my writing, research and teaching. Reviewers highlight issues that cause me to think more critically about student learning and engagement. Today’s students certainly present challenges for case writers. I am awed by the ways other case writers have developed to engage and enlighten digital natives. The case method continues to survive and thrive due to the experimentation of those teaching with cases in online and remote class settings.
Helping Others Publish: As TCJ Editor, I provide oversight on the publication of almost 40 cases each year. It is gratifying to help other case writers respond to reviewers and improve their e little improvement has been made or if they perceive that the case writer is unable to make the necessary changes. I am so very pleased to issue an “Accept” decision to a hardworking case writer.
Contributing to the Field: I became a case writer because I wanted to have an impact. I wanted to make a difference in some way. In my role as Editor-in-Chief, I am able to make a difference on a regular basis—in the feedback and encouragement I give to a struggling case-writer, in setting editorial policies, in trying to get case research recognized on the Australian Business Dean’s List of Top journals (still working on that one), and in making the tough decision to give case writers one more chance when one reviewer wants to accept a case while the other believes it should be rejected. These decisions provide an incremental “nudge” To the case writing community. I realize that my decisions may not be as impactful as those made by the founding mothers and fathers of case writing, but appreciate the small gains that have been achieved.
You could experience the same positive outcomes by becoming a TCJ Associate Editor. Three Associate Editors were introduced during 2021/2022 to improve the responsiveness of the review process. A special thank you to Heidi Bertels, Keith Harris and Christopher Craig for your service. We are hoping to add one or two additional Associate Editors in the future. Candidates must have published one or more cases in refereed case journals (preferably TCJ), reviewed for a refereed case journal and have significant experience teaching with cases. We are keen to round out the expertise of our editorial team by adding individuals with strengths in supply chain management, data analytics, finance, accounting or emerging business disciplines. If you have questions about the position expectations or would like to be considered, please email me at tcjeditor@gmail.com.
Highlights from the 2021/2022 editor’s report
Each year I submit an annual report to the board of directors of the CASE association. Here are some highlights from this year’s report:
TCJ publishes 6 issues per year. In Volume 17, 44 cases and papers were accepted (34.4% of 128 submissions) and 84 cases and papers received a reject decision (65.6%). Of the 84 rejected cases, 12 were rejected with transfer (sending them on to Emerging Market Case Studies for consideration), 23 were rejected through the review process and 49 were rejected before a review as inappropriate.
TCJ ran a Compact Case Competition (sponsored by Emerald Publishing) that generated more than 40 submissions. The winners were:
1st Place – Haus One Brothel: Ethical Decision Making in a Foreign Culture – Russell P. Lemler, Lissa V. Young, Everett S.P. Spain ($1,000).
2nd Place – When Foreign Direct investment is Threatened: Rio Tinto and Richards Bay Minerals – Amy Fisher Moore, Marianne Matthee ($500).
3rd Place – Hoarding COVID-19 Essential Products during the Pandemic – Abderrahman Hassi, Giovanna Storti ($500).
We are on a pace to publish more cases in 2021/2022 than we published in 2020/2021. Volume 17 (2020/2021) included 34 cases. To date, the first four issues of Volume 18 (2021/2022) include 29 cases. Our goal for each year has been 40/42 cases. Volume 18 will most likely break the all-time record for the number of cases published in TCJ!
The Case Centre now provides access to TCJ cases on their platform. Instructors who want to use TCJ cases alongside those published by Harvard, Ivey, Darden and others can now order case packs for their students through The Case Centre. Searches can be done to isolate only TCJ cases if desired.
CIBER (Center for International Business Education & Research) and Emerald Publishing partnered to offer a series of three webinars on how to develop, write and publish compact cases (9/16/21, 10/7/21 and 10/28/21. The webinars were presented by Rebecca Morris and were attended by 300+ individuals worldwide. The webinars were recorded and are posted on YouTube.
The Emerald Best Case Awards for 2020/2021. Six cases from Volume 17 were nominated by the Editor-In-Chief for this award. They were reviewed and ranked by two members of the journal’s editorial board. The winner of the $1,000 award was announced by Melissa Close of Emerald Publishing at the Eastern Academy of Management Annual Meeting in May 2022.
Finalists for the Emerald best case award from volume 17 included
■ Peleton’s Ride to Growth
Christopher Winchester, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE
Andrea Erin Bass, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE
■ A Makeover for Dudley’s Q+
Caroline Glackin, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC
Suzanne Altobello, University of North Caroline at Pembroke, Pembroke, NC
■ Abrupt Policy Reversal Amid Black Lives Matter: Starbucks’ Grande Employee Dress Code Problem
Megan Douglas & Sarah Holtzen, MO Southern State University, Joplin, MO
Sinéad Ruane, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT
Kim Sherman, Westfield State University, Westfield, MA
Aimee Willamson, Suffolk University, Boston, MA
A Makeover for Dudley’s Q+ was selected as the winner! The case was published in Volume 17, Issue 5. Caroline Glackin and Suzanne Altobello received $1,000 from Emerald Publishing for the Best Case of Volume 17. Congratulations Caroline and Suzanne!
In THIS issue
This issue includes eight cases (see Table 1) focused on a wide variety of companies, locations and issues. Each case has a strong IM providing effective teaching strategies, theoretical linkages and complete answers and analysis to all discussion questions. TCJ IMs have been rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure that adopting faculty can teach these cases as well as the authors. Enjoy!
Cases in this issue
| Case Title and Target Audience | Authors | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| To Be or Not To Be? The case of Sinorama’s International Tourism Empire Target Audience: Undergraduate and MBA courses integrating entrepreneurship, international business and business ethics |
Zheni Wang & Kauther Badr | A Chinese immigrant couple migrated to Canada and started Vacances Sinorama Inc. (“Vacances Sinorama”) in 2005. In 2016, they established a financing shell company, Sinorama Corporation (“Sinorama Corp.”) in Florida, USA, which became the holding company to their older companies. The owners, who were born during the 1970s and raised in Mainland China, were culturally traditional and operated the company with the values, and norms from their heritage culture. Vacances Sinorama successfully penetrated local tourism market using Web-based technology and aggressive low-pricing strategies. Vacances Sinorama was operating in the red for several consecutive years (2015–2018) due to its expansion. Sinorama Corp. received additional capital of US$4.4m by listing a portion of its shares on the NASDAQ OTC market during 2016 and 2017. Canadian regulators began to investigate its operational and financing activities in 2017, found that there was a co-mingling of client and operation funds, which directly violated consumer protection laws. Ultimately, the license for Vacances Sinorama was non-renewed in August of 2018. |
| Student “Work Group” Not Working Target Audience: Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Organizational Behavior or Human Resource Management |
Happy Paul & Srinivasan Tatachari | This case deals with a student Work Group facing intra-group conflicts while pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) at a prominent Indian B school. Three members of the group have approached Hemant Patel, organizational behavior faculty and Suhas Shah, Program Chair, seeking help to resolve the conflict. Patel and Shah conducted interviews with group members and organized a workshop on group dynamics at the larger, class level. However, a few members informed them that dynamics were still poor. Patel and Shah are contemplating what to do next. |
| Demystifying the Person Brand – Roger Federer: the Greatest of All Times (G.O.A.T.) Target Audience: Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Brand Management, Marketing Management and Sports Management |
Anagha Shukre & Sreejith Ummathiriyan | Roger Federer has won a record setting 20 grand slam titles in his career (1) and has an impressive 103 ATP singles titles to his name (1). He has stood the test of time and is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinguished players of all times. His personal charisma, classic shot making abilities and consistent stylish on-court performance over a long period of time has created a brand – Roger Federer. Inevitably, as he will have to wind down his career, it would be challenging to brace the brand and identify ways for its endurance. Various models of brand management, namely, Brand Identity Prism and Customer-Based Brand Equity model (CBBE), have been applied for the brand – Roger Federer. An analysis of brand-building practices can help to understand how sportspersons build brand equity and factors which characterize personal brands that develop in a professional arena. The case study also helps to dwell on how human brands will sustain themselves after the players retire. |
| Luckin Coffee Inc: Brewing Fraud Target Audience: Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Accounting, Corporate Governance or Business Ethics |
Anupam Mehta | The case deals with a RMB 2.2bn accounting fraud at Luckin Coffee Inc. (LK), a US-listed Chinese company, which led to a steep fall in its share price by more than 80% in April 2020. The company’s CEO had to resign in light of the accounting fraud, which involved fabricating the transactions in 2019, the same year it got listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The case is a classic example of greed, corporate ambition and flaws in the corporate governance that led to the fraud while framing a course of action for the company moving forward. The case allows the learners to dive deep into the facts to find out why the fraud happened and its repercussions for the company and its various stakeholders. |
| The Worker Bee’s Dilemma: Move Out to Move Up? Target Audience: Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Human Resource Management |
Tyechia Veronica Paul | Vivienne consistently earned high performance ratings at her firm. She designed the internal firm university, a permanent learning program. She then noticed other employees being promoted based on her work. She was not offered a promotion, so she conducted a job analysis. Based on those findings, Vivienne decided to develop and present a retitling proposal for her promotion to a title better aligned with the level of work she performed. This case analyzes Vivienne’s organization, the firm university program, and her retitling proposal using management theories, human resources laws and concepts, and it leads to an important career crossroads. |
| Attitune Music: The Econometrics of Jazz Target Audience: Undergraduate and graduate courses in Statistics, Econometrics and Research Methods |
Jan-Jan Soon | The case revolves around a relatively new music school, Attitune Music, established in July 2017 in the heart of the capital city of a northern state in Malaysia. Michael Lee Wei-Pin was the founder of Attitune Music Sdn. Bhd. He was also one of the four music instructors of Attitune Music. His specialty instruments were the guitar and the piano. The case opens with the case protagonist, Michael, pondering over Attitune’s performance in terms of its music students’ enrollment. Attitune faced a major challenge – its student enrollment had remained more or less constant since its establishment. Low and/or constant number of students could ultimately translate into stagnant or even worse, shrinking revenues for Attitune. To attract more students, Michael had been toying with the idea of injecting new elements into Attitune’s music lessons, something different from what other music schools were offering and that could be unique selling points for Attitune. With this in mind, Michael surveyed Attitune’s students to gather information that could help him gauge the potential and feasibility of his idea. Michael wanted to get a more in-depth understanding of his clients prior to implementing his plans. |
| “Content, content everywhere….. How to reach and engage consumers?” – Brand Nabhi Sutra Target Audience: Undergraduate courses in Marketing |
Viral Nagori & Crystal Magotra | The case is classified in the category of a short case addressing the identification of the problem of content saturation and guidelines to avoid it. The case narrates the story of Nabhi Sutra, a healthcare start-up that offers “Ayurveda” remedies in the form of oil to be applied to the navel to cure health issues. Ms Vakharia, the owner of Nabhi Sutra, mentioned that her social media posts and campaigns are not reaching the desired target audience. |
| Haus Liebe Brothel: Ethical Decision Making in a Foreign Culture Winner of the Compact Case Competition Target Audience: Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Management Science or Business Ethics |
Everett S.P. Spain, Lissa V. Young and Russell P. Lemler | This disguised case follows US Army Officer Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Shawn Browning, leader of a prominent US Army base located in Germany. As the commander of US Army Garrison Schweinfurt, LTC Browning was responsible for the health and welfare of 10,000 residents, including soldiers, family members and civilian employees. A community member lodged a complaint against a brothel named Haus One (a legal establishment under German law) located adjacent to the base and near family housing and the base elementary school. LTC Browning had the authority to render the brothel off-limits to US personnel, and he took the necessary steps prior to rendering a decision, including the appointment of a review board to investigate the situation and provide a recommendation. The board recommended not placing Haus One off-limits. The case focuses on LTC Browning’s values, and his desire to ensure the welfare of his community while adhering to local legal and cultural norms. Cross-cultural and ethical issues surface throughout the case, which concludes with LTC Browning’s pondering of how to make a final decision. |
About the author
Rebecca J. Morris is based at Department of Economics and Management, Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts, USA.