Surabhi Gupta, Nakul Gupta and Shubham Narayan
Capital structure theory.
Abstract
Theoretical basis
Capital structure theory.
Research methodology
The case is meant for teaching and class discussion, and uses only secondary data based on published sources. The interpretation and perspectives presented are based solely on the secondary data.
Case overview/synopsis
This paper aims to help current and future managers understand capital structure theory and the various equity and debt finance options available for raising capital. It also examines the financial analysis and strategic management of black swan events. After the class discussion, students will understand how to financially and strategically manage a company during black swan events and also have a deep dive into capital structure analysis of a large company.
Complexity academic level
MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on corporate finance or advanced corporate finance. Executive/management development programs and short duration Massive Open Online Courses on investment decision-making and advanced corporate finance. MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on corporate strategy and economic environment and planning.
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Nakul Gupta, Radha R. Sharma and Rupali Pardasani
Entrepreneurship, internationalization, family-owned business management, strategic management.
Abstract
Subject area
Entrepreneurship, internationalization, family-owned business management, strategic management.
Study level/applicability
MBA/postgraduate management program courses on family business management. The case can be taught at the beginning of the course to acquaint students with the dynamics of family-owned businesses. MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on entrepreneurship. It can be used in the middle of the course to highlight the challenges presented by an entrepreneur due to change in the business environment and macroeconomic scenario. MBA/postgraduate course on strategic management. It can be used at the beginning of the course to introduce strategies for managing and sustaining growth of a business. MBA/postgraduate course on organizational development. It can be used in the middle of the course to help students understand the importance of designing an optimal organizational structure for a family business.
Case overview
FragraAroma was an Indian fragrance company. Anil Gupta, the Founder and Managing Director of FragraAroma, and his sister Nisha were equal shareholders of the company. With changes in the Foreign Direct Investment Policy in 2013 in India, Anil and Nisha's husband Tarun had different expansion plans for FragraAroma. While Anil was planning to expand FragraAroma internationally, but his sister and her husband wanted diversification of the company's customer segment in the domestic market itself. The case is poised at the juncture, where Anil was facing a labyrinth of critical decisions. Would he go ahead with Tarun's expansion plan or stick to his plan of internationalization? Would his decision affect the harmony of the family? Was there a way that could enable him sailing his family and family business out of the doldrums?
Expected learning outcomes
This case is primarily about a family business and the dilemmas faced by the owner of that family business. The case captures the challenges faced by a family business in sustaining growth and competitiveness. The case can be used to understand how decisions are taken in a family-owned business. To understand the challenges faced by a family-owned business while developing and implementing its growth strategies. To understand the opportunities and challenges presented to a family-owned businesses when macroeconomic scenarios change. To understand the spillover effects of business decisions on family relations in a typical family-owned business setup.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
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Sana Shawl, Keyurkumar M. Nayak and Nakul Gupta
On completion of the case, the students will be able to understand the concept and importance of sustainability; understand how triple bottom line can help a company make a…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
On completion of the case, the students will be able to understand the concept and importance of sustainability; understand how triple bottom line can help a company make a transition towards sustainability; evaluate the tensions between the three pillars of triple bottom line approach; assess the role of circular economy model as opposed to the conventional linear model in the transition of a company towards sustainability; and understand the sustainability challenge in an emerging market context.
Case overview/synopsis
Despite the promising growth potential of the plastics industry in India, it is faced with sustainability challenges owing to its detrimental impact on environment. To preserve the environment and human kind, the government made a bold announcement in 2018 to eliminate the use of highly polluting single-use plastics (SUPs) in the country. Amid this growing sustainability threat against plastics and the fall in demand of SUP items, this case illustrates that Sandip Patel, the plant manager of Cello Plastotech, is entrusted by the CEO with the responsibility of adopting a triple bottom line approach encompassing its three pillars, that is, people, planet and profits, as a response to the sustainability challenge. The strategic rethinking towards adopting sustainability required Patel to face the challenge of striking a balance between the three pillars of triple bottom line while also taking some valuable insights for plastic waste management from the circular economy model. While making a transition to sustainability, he needed to evaluate different options like stopping the manufacture of SUPs and look for alternatives, use of biodegradable raw material which was expensive but environment friendly or manufacture such durable plastic products that would replace SUPs.
Complexity academic level
The case is aimed at teaching the topic Triple Bottom Line approach in the courses of business strategy and sustainability in under-graduate and post-graduate level courses in the discipline of Management. It can also be used as a supplementary reading in courses like Corporate Social Responsibility and Circular Economy. In emerging markets’ context, these topics are generally taught to MBA students in courses like strategic management, sustainable business and business ethics.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy.
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Nakul Gupta, Mahadeo P. Jaiswal and Rupali Pardasani
The purpose of this paper is to help students understand how companies combine and leverage their existing knowledge capabilities in order to build strategic advantage for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to help students understand how companies combine and leverage their existing knowledge capabilities in order to build strategic advantage for the company. The case also throws some light on the opportunities and challenges faced by SME's of emerging markets in going international in turbulent macroeconomic scenarios.
Design/methodology/approach
The case has been written for the purpose of teaching and class discussion. Interviews with protagonist provided the primary data and published reports and archives of the company provided the secondary data for the case.
Findings
After the class discussion, students will be able to figure out how SME's can best leverage their existing knowledge base, efficiently manage that knowledge base and accurately assess the impact of these knowledge management activities for international expansion.
Originality/value
This is among the first few cases in the area of knowledge management from the perspective of SME's in emerging markets in the fragrance and other allied industries.
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Nakul Gupta and Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj
Pedagogy today has become a function of technology and this relationship becomes all the more promising when used to address the educational needs of the constantly changing and…
Abstract
Purpose
Pedagogy today has become a function of technology and this relationship becomes all the more promising when used to address the educational needs of the constantly changing and fast evolving business school education. Business schools today are responsible for empowering future managers and leaders with not only the knowledge and insights but also with the ability to sense and respond to the unanticipated changes of the turbulent business environment. The objective of this paper is to conceptualize an integrated pedagogical framework that combines “richness” of augmented reality, classroom teaching and academic research with “reach” of social networking to yield a paradigm of agile business school education.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a conceptual model that would help in building entrepreneurial agility through business school education when internal factors collectively optimize the richness of education content and external factors provide the reach necessary to create a field for socialization that helps in building knowledge.
Findings
The authors’ conceptual model consists of three sub‐paradigms derived from the theories they discuss: richness (from theory of experiential learning), reach (from social network theory) and business school education agility (from contingency theory). These three dimensions together enable the authors to understand and propose a new model for business schools, which would have the objective of producing more graduates with entrepreneurial agility.
Research limitations/implications
This research is just an attempt towards integration of emerging technologies to offer agile and experiential education. More research is needed to assess the effectiveness of various teaching and learning techniques. Multivariate analysis would be helpful in determining the multitude of effects on learning that can occur within a business school environment.
Originality/value
Agile business school education is a new variation on business school pedagogy that combines traditional‐style education with technology to provide education that is relevant today and will be relevant in dealing with unforeseen events in the future. Agile business school education will enable graduates to build and lead agile and successful organizations.
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Khushnuma Wasi, Zuby Hasan, Nakul Parameswar, Jayshree Patnaik and M.P. Ganesh
Tech start-ups (TSs) functioning in different domains have a responsibility of ensuring that domestic knowledge and capabilities are leveraged to minimize dependence on foreign…
Abstract
Purpose
Tech start-ups (TSs) functioning in different domains have a responsibility of ensuring that domestic knowledge and capabilities are leveraged to minimize dependence on foreign organizations. Despite the growth of the ecosystem, while numerous TSs emerge, very few of them are able to survive, and of those that survive, very few scale up. The aim of this study is to identify the factors influencing the competitiveness of technological start-ups and to study the interrelationship and interdependence of these factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Modified total interpretative structural modeling (m-TISM) was employed for the current research. The analysis of what factors have an effect on competitiveness, how they affect it and why they affect it should be explored. The study begins by developing the list of factors through literature search, and further it is validated by expert opinion. A hierarchical model has been developed using m-TISM and MICMAC analysis to analyze the driving and dependency power of factors at each level.
Findings
Results show that the competitiveness of TSs is affected by organizational agility and internationalization. Factors present at the bottom level, namely entrepreneurial intensity, act as a strong driver for TSs. Team member commitment, transformational leadership, strategic alliances, knowledge sharing and organizational ambidexterity are middle-level factors.
Originality/value
This study is among the few articles that have explored competitiveness of TSs in the Indian context.
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Nakul Parameswar, Akriti Chaubey and Sanjay Dhir
There has been an increasing interest amongst the researchers to work and explore, “Black Swan” events which are not well studied. However, the “Black Swan” events hold an eminent…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been an increasing interest amongst the researchers to work and explore, “Black Swan” events which are not well studied. However, the “Black Swan” events hold an eminent relevance amongst academicians and practitioners. The present study offers nuanced understanding of “Black Swan” events.
Design/methodology/approach
We undertook an extensive bibliometric analysis of the extant literature using “Black Swan” as guiding keyword with the help of SCOPUS database.
Findings
The search for articles only yielded 59 articles. Our analyses highlight the prominent works, authors and journals. Further, this study reveal the research gaps that may help guide future scholars interested in “Black Swan” events to examine in different context.
Research limitations/implications
The current study develops a research agenda and offers numerous research directions. Research on “Black Swan” events can be apprehended at three different stages – pre-black swan event, about black swan event and post-black swan event with identified sub-themes.
Originality/value
This paper is the pioneer research work to dedicatedly analyse the existing set of literature with “Black Swan”.
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Lakshmi S. Iyer, Babita Gupta and Nakul Johri
The primary purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive strategy for performance, reliability and scalability (PSR) testing of multi‐tier web applications.
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive strategy for performance, reliability and scalability (PSR) testing of multi‐tier web applications.
Design/methodology/approach
The strategy for PSR testing is presented primarily through examination of the intangible knowledge base in the PSR testing field. The paper also draws on relevant recent work conducted in the area of software performance evaluation.
Findings
The study revealed that appropriate testing procedures are critical for the success of web‐based multi‐tier applications. However, there was little academic work that collectively focused on PSR testing issues. This paper provides step‐by‐step testing procedures to ensure that web‐based applications are functioning well to meet user demands.
Research limitations/implications
Given the rapid changes in technology and business environments, more applied research will be needed in the area of PSR testing to ensure the successful functioning of web‐based applications. For future studies, structured interviews or case‐study methods could be employed to present the views of online companies.
Originality/value
This paper provides a comprehensive strategy and the suggested steps for managers and technical personnel to ensure that the multi‐tier, web‐based applications are effective, scalable and reliable.