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Marketing at ski resorts presents an interesting challenge because of the variety of resort types associated with the industry. At one end of the marketing spectrum are the so‐called destination resorts that trade on an image of glitz and glamour. Much of the marketing talent needed to run such resorts is to be found in large corporate departments that promote everything from upscale real estate to televised events studded with celebrities. At the other end of the spectrum are small local resorts, often owned by entrepreneurs, whose marketing activities are for the most part limited to finding the right marketing mix for the sport itself. In contrast to the myriad of activities associated with larger facilities, smaller resorts tend to focus more on product, price, promotion, and place. An interesting problem develops when smaller resorts seek to leapfrog their current market position by expanding their size. This case study examines the 49° North Mountain Resort, a small, privately owned skiing facility in Washington state that is seeking to expand. Before investing in expansion activities, entrepreneurs must carry out an accurate assessment of market potential and financial risk – by no means an easy task. One possible technique for ascertaining risk is to link a forecasted growth in revenues to improvements in facilities and operations. An entrepeneur with some prior access to a history of market behavior clearly has an advantage over those with only a limited sense of how a radically new product or service is likely to perform. The present study provides data that should prove useful to anyone attempting to judge whether an expansion is desirable. It also describes the marketing mix that has brought some stability to the resort’s financial performance. Market and quantitative data are available for analysis, but are other factors important as well? Should the resort maintain its current marketing mix, or should it target a more lucrative market?

The Looking Glass simulation was developed by behavioural scientists at the Centre for Creative Leadership, North Carolina. Looking Glass, Inc is one of the best known examples of a realistic behavioural simulation. Such simulations allow managers to be studied and trained in situations closely approximating their natural environment. A condensed version of an article which follows one manager through the simulation is presented, giving an insight into the process of self‐assessment and self‐discovery that can take place.

This paper aims to explore the perceptions and experiences of a group of extra care tenants, who, as novice internet users, began to maintain their social relationships online. Housing transitions in later life may jeopardise existing social relationships, leading to loneliness and social isolation. More recently, Covid-19 restrictions have limited familial face-to-face contact and wider social interactions. Thus, extra care tenants, who are not already online, may benefit from acquiring internet skills. This paper aims to enhance understanding of the participants’ transition from novices to experienced internet users and the impact on their social relationships and sense of self.

A longitudinal, hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted over eight months in two extra care housing schemes in north east England. Ten participants (56–98 years) with age-related physical, sensory and cognitive losses were recruited to the study. A series of semi-structured interviews and participant diaries captured the participants’ experience as they developed internet skills and communicated online.

All participants, including a blind individual, learnt to communicate online. Personalised adaptive strategies, peer support, training and management involvement facilitated internet uptake. Participants felt their social relationships were supported, and they regained biographical continuity, through being and feeling they belonged in the modern digital world.

The online experiences of extra care tenants are rarely voiced. Their perceptions may assist others to engage online, maintaining social connections, which could otherwise be lost.

Establishing acceptability of complex interventions to stakeholders is vital in early scientific development. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the acceptability of a program of equine-assisted activities (EAAP) for people with dementia by elucidating programmatic practices needed to enhance their safety and quality of life (QoL) from the perspectives of service providers.

Semi-structured interviews with five providers were analyzed using a basic qualitative approach.

Providers perceived the EAAP as acceptable and revealed potential mechanisms of change supporting well-being, including aspects related to the physical and social environment and person with dementia. Linkages identified among the EAAP and its physical and social context support its complexity. Providers explicated program practices that promoted safety and QoL, such as implementing staff trainings and tailoring activities to each person’s preferences and needs. These practices aligned with best dementia care approaches, underscoring that the EAAP is a promising complex intervention that merits further scientific development.

This work is novel and adds to the literature by illuminating the role of a community-based, animal-assisted program for enhancing the QoL of older adults with dementia residing in institutional care facilities.

This chapter outlines the successful development of a women’s initiative from a grass roots organization to a firmly established institution within our medical school. Championed by a group of dedicated women leaders, the mission of the Alliance for Women in Medicine and Science (AWIMS) is to provide a supportive forum to promote honest discussion and positive change in the realms of gender equity, career advancement, work-life balance, and community service, and to champion professional development and promotion of women in medicine and science. What started as an informal gathering within Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in 2015, led by Dr Vidhya Prakash, first morphed into a robust, vital organization called Women in Medicine that contributed meaningfully to SIU Medicine and to the community before it broadened its focus to women in medicine and science and expanded its reach to the entire SIU system. In January of 2018, the initiative was firmly institutionalized as AWIMS, an organization open to ALL members of the SIU community. AWIMS seeks to advance women’s rights through various initiatives. This chapter is co-authored by AWIMS director Dr Vidhya Prakash, and Dr Anne Scheer, a qualitative sociologist in the medical school’s Department of Population Science and Policy, who hopes to help tell the story of AWIMS and translate the Alliance’s successful development process into a narrative accessible to other professionals interested in creating innovations to promote women’s interests in traditionally male-dominated professional settings.

The purpose of this paper is to examine managerial perspectives in both buyer and supplier firms implementing environmental initiatives in their supply chains, and explore the impact of environmental initiatives on buyer-supplier relationships.

A qualitative, grounded theory approach is used as the methodological approach to this research, including 15 in-depth interviews with managers from buyer and supplier firms implementing environmental initiatives in their supply chains to gain multiple perspectives of the buyer-supplier relationships.

The results suggest that implementing environmental initiatives within the supply chain changes the buyer-supplier relationship from transactional to collaborative, shifting from a commodity-focused purchase to a more strategic purchase as environmental initiatives are implemented.

Although both buyer and supplier perspectives were considered, matched dyads were not used; researchers should continue to provide a holistic perspective of the phenomenon with dyadic data. Additionally, the use of a qualitative research approach suggests a lack of generalizability of results, and therefore researchers should further test the propositions.

Implementing environmental initiatives within the supply chain may require different approaches to supply management and development for long-term success. Suppliers should recognize that the capability to implement environmental initiatives with their customers is a differentiator. The nuances involved in managing the implementation of environmental initiatives between firms can be better managed by collaboratively developing metrics specifically related to the environment.

Previous research in environmental supply chain management has examined drivers and barriers of implementing environmental initiatives with suppliers, but fails to address the relationship dynamics involved when implementing environmental initiatives between organizations. This research begins to fill that gap.

An alliance of schools and researchers formed a collaborative community of practice in order to understand and improve the sensory school environment for pupils on the autistic spectrum, and incorporate the findings into school improvement planning. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Representatives of special and mainstream schools in South London and a team of researchers formed the project team, including an autistic researcher. The researchers and a named staff member from each of the schools met regularly over the course of 18 months in order to work on an iterative process to improve the sensory experience pupils had of the school environment. Each school completed sensory audits and observations, and was visited by members of the research team. Parents were involved via meetings with the research team and two conferences were organised to share findings.

Useful outcomes included: developing and sharing of good practice between schools; opportunities for parents of autistic pupils to discuss their concerns, particularly with someone with insider perspective; and exploration of creative ways to achieve pupil involvement and the idea that good autism practice has the potential to benefit all pupils. A resource pack was produced for the schools to access. Plans are in place to revisit the initiative in 12 months’ time in order to ascertain whether there have been long-term benefits.

Projects building communities of practice involving autistic people as core team members are rare, yet feedback from those involved in the project showed this to be a key aspect of shared learning.

The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to give faculty the opportunity to illustrate the strategist’s and marketer’s toolbox, namely, tools and frameworks such as the McKinsey 7S model. Porter’s generic marketing strategies. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. Political, economic, social and cultural, technological, environment and legal – external macro analysis. The case is intended for use in MBA and Executive education courses in strategy, marketing and leadership. The case offers relevant experiences and instructive lessons in formulating and implementing business strategies. The case highlights the importance of contextual leadership intelligence and competence in enabling entrepreneurial business activities. The case gives students the opportunity to apply a strategic framework to marketing communications, competitive analysis and branding with a new brand and a new name in a first world economy. The case helps students understand that: successful companies are a success because of their people and leadership, proactive thinking and constantly looking for new opportunities will make you a leader in the market, up-to-date competitor and market analysis are paramount in making the winning decision, staying true to one’s business philosophy and company values build a reputable organization, the importance of creating partnerships and healthy relationships with the distribution channel, the concept of competitive advantage, the concept of differentiation, focus and cost leadership and the concept of value and understanding customer needs.

The Egan’s Whiskey case offers students a unique opportunity to discover the important, yet grass-root, strategic decisions made by a high-quality alcohol product in a very competitive, well-known brand dominated the market, the USA. The case focuses specifically on issues related to strategic choices and implementation, brand, reputation, leadership, strategic marketing decision-making, customer/retail relationships, customer value and the importance of good marketing intelligence. There are some good examples of out-of-the-box thinking. History reveals that companies with the strongest brands, most proactive leadership, innovative marketing ideas, superb marketing intelligence and deepest relationships with their consumers are the pillars of success. The very assets that define these leading companies provide benchmarks for upcoming organizations. Being complacent and having poor leadership and vision in an ever-demanding customer-driven and competitive environment is a recipe for failure. Organizations and their leadership teams need to start thinking systematically, proactively and strategically about their place in competitive markets and take quick actions to mitigate risks and miss opportunities before they become reality. This case reveals the importance of understanding your strategic landscape, your market, your competitors, your customers, quick thinking and actions and having a rolling strategic plan, which is adaptable.

The case is intended for use in MBA and Executive education courses in strategy, marketing and leadership.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Based on upper echelons theory, this paper aims to explore the mixed impacts of chief executive officer (CEO) Machiavellianism on new venture performance. At the same time, this paper tests the mediating and suppression effect of top management team (TMT) collective organizational engagement, and the moderating effect of entrepreneurial orientation.

The authors conducted a three-wave survey of a sample of 1,550 enterprises established within three years, finally retained the full sample of 216 companies (216 CEOs, 733 vice presidents) with complete responses in all surveys. By using SPSS 26.0 and Amos 26.0 software to conduct data analysis, the authors empirically tested the hypothesized relationships.

Regression results show that CEO Machiavellianism negatively affects new venture performance through TMT collective organizational engagement, whereas there is a direct positive relationship between CEO Machiavellianism and new venture performance when TMT collective organizational engagement is controlled for. In addition, entrepreneurial orientation plays a boundary role in this mechanism, which can weaken the negative effect of CEO Machiavellianism on TMT collective organizational engagement.

By expanding the application contexts of the upper echelons theory, this paper enriches the research on Machiavellianism in the organizational research and further clarified the simultaneous positive and negative effects of CEO Machiavellianism on new venture performance.