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The manager of engineering at Palm Oasis Engineering in Dubai expressed dissatisfaction with his compensation. The uncertainty of his continued participation at a key position came at a critical time for the company. This case provides an event for the analysis of HRM issues of a small company in a nontraditional, international context. Real and perceptual issues surrounding expatriate employee compensation, including wages and benefits relative to home country, cost indices, inflation, and currency fluctuations, are analyzed. Motivation and negotiation strategy are also examined.

This case has been disguised to protect the anonymity of the company and key individuals. The industry, name of the company, and names of personnel have been changed. The authors were granted access to key personnel at the company during a limited time frame.

This case is designed for upper level, undergraduate international management, international human resource management, and human resource management courses. The case is designed as a mid-semester decision-based case that allows students to apply concepts on motivation, human resource management, and negotiation.

The case is derived from secondary sources, including publicly available reports and information about all companies directly or indirectly engaged in the industry. No primary sources were available.

This teaching case is designed for students to demonstrate their mastery of industry-level analysis in the emerging space tourism industry. It allows students to understand what constitutes the industry within the broader space sector and to apply analytical tools such as PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces, with the option to discuss strategic groups. Students gain insights into how the industry is evolving within its broader environment and how companies could respond or differentiate themselves. Information is also provided for students to consider the broader social impact of a relatively new industry from the perspective of sustainable development.

The case is written for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in strategic management courses. The case placement is ideally in conjunction with industry-level analytical frameworks such as Porter’s Five Forces, PESTEL analysis, strategic groups (optional) and industry life cycle. Most strategic management textbooks cover these concepts in the first few chapters. For example, “Strategic Management, 14th edition” by Hill, Schilling and Jones (2023) covers these topics in chapter 2. Given that space tourism is an embryonic industry dependent on technological innovation, instructors might also use this case in innovation or entrepreneurship-related courses. This case could also be used to address critical issues, such as sustainability, in tourism management courses.

This paper explores the relationship between the timing and usage of process innovation and a firm's competitive business strategy. A study of 104 foundries that adopted Automatic Flaskless Matchplate Molding (AFMM) showed that the decision to adopt was significantly related to strategies of product specialization, value‐added, and customer focus, but not to low‐cost leadership. Finns with divergent competitive strategies adopted the innovation, but used it differently to reach their varying goals.

Scholars have widely asserted that a firm’s manufacturing technologies must be aligned with its competitive strategy. This study tests the existence of such a strategy‐technology “fit”, determines whether good fit results in better performance, and examines the nature of fit in light of computer controlled or “advanced manufacturing technologies”. For a sample of 399 metal machining firms, a strategy‐technology alignment was found to exist and relate to higher financial performance. Advanced manufacturing technologies were found to both reinforce and alter conventional thinking about the flexibility‐efficiency tradeoff. Specific technologies were found to be uniquely bundled or combined to support specific competitive requirements.