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This case is written for those people who are interested in entrepreneurship, and to generate discussions on the Lean Start-up methodology, as well as other topics related to entrepreneurship and innovation.

It can be used with senior undergraduates, MBAs, EMBAs and senior executives.

In August 2011, Mars Ren and Gene Deng created a technology-based venture, Shanghai Tianhailu Network Information Technology Ltd. Filled with passion, they aspired to be the first “factory outlet” in China' hotel booking industry. To achieve this goal, they developed the Hotelvp app for mobile users. After 6:00 p.m. every day, users could book accommodation online in hotels above three-star standard for that same night at significant discounts. Hotels also benefited because they could sell their unsold room nights at the last minute and improve their revenue management. Ren and Deng were convinced that this win-win idea would take off. Unfortunately, it failed to fully satisfy either the users or the hotels. In spite of the founders' passion and energy, it was still acquired by a much more powerful player in the online sector, JD.com, in early 2014. This case is designed to stimulate in-depth discussions based on the question: What are the key obstacles when launching a startup and how to overcome them?

Through class discussion, it aims at teaching the student how to define and practice a start-up idea successfully by following the “Lean Start-up” methodology and/or take advantage of a practical tool, discovery-driven planning. Specifically, this case intends to teach students how: To identify and define a good start-up idea; To take actions based on the idea/opportunity, iterate and modify it along the way to create new start-ups, and finally lead the new start-ups to grow and succeed; To understand the key concepts, frameworks and theoretical logics of Lean Start-up methodology, and apply it in practice.

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

In mid-2013, the Lee family, which owned the Hong Kong based food and health product giant Lee Kum Kee (LKK), struggled with how best to increase involvement of the fifth generation (G5), the children of the company's current fourth-generation (G4) senior executives and governance leaders. Only two of the fourteen G5 members had joined the company, and few had expressed interest in further involvement, including in the multiple learning and development programs the business offered, such as a mentoring program. Many of the G5 cousins had expressed little interest in business careers in general, and none of them currently was serving as an LKK intern. G4 members observed that their children were busy with family obligations, hobbies, and emerging careers outside the business. G5's lack of interest in business and governance roles was part of a growing pattern of low family engagement in general, exhibited by the cancellation of recent family retreats (once an annual tradition) because of apathy and some underlying conflict. A history of splits among past generations of the Lee family regarding business leadership made the engagement issue even more meaningful and critical.

Students will consider the challenge from the point of view of G4 family members David Lee, chairman of the family's Family Office, and his sister, Elizabeth Mok, who ran the Family Learning and Development Center. They and their three siblings saw engaging the next generation as a top priority, one related to key concepts including family-business continuity, generational engagement and empowerment, succession, emotional ownership, and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation.

This study has used public sources, interview with one of the case protagonists.

This business case portrays the problems that an energy producing company faced in Portugal, in its transition from being a public company to becoming privatized. The Portuguese Government issued EDP with generous subsidies to guarantee its future profits and privatization success, but a few years later, after EDP was fully privatized, there was great political pressure to downsize such subsidies. The case describes the main steps taken by EDP from its creation and privatization, culminating at the end of 2017, where it was heavily criticized by media and political parties due to a high value of subsidies that had been granted to the company by the Portuguese Government in the past, while it was still a public company, and the renegotiation of those same subsidies after it had been privatized. EDP’s President António Mexia was under police investigation due to having led the renegotiation talks in 2007, and it was feared that EDP’s investors could refrain from investing in the company. Should EDP campaign to clear its good name, or would it be better to let the matter fall with the passing of time? Could the share value be affected? Should EDP prepare itself for loss of revenue due to an eventual downsizing of the subsidies?

This study covers energy sector, privatization issues and government support. The relevance of this study is good for use in Business Schools and MBA courses.

The strategic and tactical problems of managing the operations function in a service environment can be examined through the context of the Walt Disney Company (DIS) opening Shanghai Disneyland. The company and its investors were excited about the Shanghai opening for a good reason: demographics. The resort would be located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, easily the wealthiest of all of China’s districts. A massive 330 million people lived with a three-hour driving radius of the resort site, compared with 19.6 million who lived within the same radius at DIS’s most profitable park, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Still, risks remained. Construction complications had delayed the opening almost a year longer than expected and cost overruns and alterations had increased the final price tag of the project. The Chinese economy had also hit a rough patch following the Chinese stock market slump in the summer of 2015. With the world watching, could the classic Disney theme park experience be delivered with the right cultural balance to appeal to its largely Chinese customers? Could DIS get it right?

Strategy.

The case is suitable for upper level undergraduate business and MBA students.

FOTILE, one of the fam ily businesses in Zhejiang, Ch ina, has now become the leading brand in the Ch ina kitchen appliance industry and has successfully entered into the global market. It has gone from a traditional family business in the 1980s to a modern enterprise because of the successful transformation from the first generation (Father: Lixiang Mao) to the second generation (Son: Zhongqun Mao) and the blending of a family business with the modern enterprise system. They both have strong beliefs that family businesses have their own advantages, but they have different ways and strategies of running the business. The case describes the process of how the father and his son worked together designing the strategies to successfully grow FOTILE.

The case is a vehicle for exploring strategies to operate a family business, to successfully develop a sustainability model, to manage a growing company through its entrepreneurial stage, and to merge western business culture with Chinese Confucian culture. It should help students to: explore strategies of managing/leading a family business and transferring successfully the business from one generation to the next; understand the importance of marketing, focusing on overall strategy and sustainability; know how to identify market opportunities, exhibit start-up intent, perform start-up planning, mission development, and feasibility analysis, and acquiring initial resources; and appreciate the close link between culture and strategy.

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

International business – sell-off and joint venture.

This case is suitable for graduation and post graduation (BBA, MBA) and other management programs. The courses include multinational business environment and strategic management

A significant increase in the Asian electronics business has created a global platform for international vendors and customers. Indeed, Chinese and Korean firms have become the foremost manufacturing and fabrication nucleus for electronic supplies in the world economy. In fact, it is an example of success from Asian emerging markets. This case presents the strategies of Asian rivals in the electronics business that shows both Bolipps and Canssonic redesigning and restructuring global tactics for long-term sustainable success in the given market. It also discusses the reasons behind their current mode of business and post-deal issues.

The case describes a way to impart managerial and leadership strategies from regular business operations happening in and around the world. Solely it focuses on designing inorganic choices such as sell-offs, joint ventures, shuffle and merging strategies through theory to application.

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

Established in 2010, Mellower Coffee has 40 exquisite chain stores and three branches, namely Mellower Coffee Sales, Mellower Business Management and Shanghai Mellower Roasting Factory. Positioned as a premium coffee brand in China, Mellower Coffee has realized the integrated operation and management of the whole industrial chain from raw coffee trade, roasting factory, coffee retail products, specialty coffee chain, office coffee to coffee academy. It has a vision to attract and cultivate more and more coffee lovers by constant innovation coffee culture promotion.