Becoming a master of disguise
At a recent webinar I was asked about fictional cases. Does TCJ publish fictionalized cases? What is the difference between a “fictionalized” case and a “disguised” case? How does one effectively disguise a case? Is a case release necessary when a case is “disguised?” (Some parts of this editorial letter appeared earlier in Morris, 2017) These questions deserve answers.
Differences between fictionalized and disguised cases
Fictionalized cases are stories that may be based on or inspired by actual situations. Generally, authors have taken liberties with the factual situation to make the story more compelling or engaging for students. Sometimes, fictionalized “cases” simplify the situation by creating composite characters or an impartial observer that can narrate the events and provide insightful commentary to move the story along. Writers may also simplify the financial/quantitative aspects of the situation so that students can easily do the necessary computations to arrive at a correct answer. The word “case” is used here with quotation marks because most journals and established case writers do not consider fictionalized “cases” to be cases at all – they are stories.
Disguised cases are based on a factual situation, but the case writers have changed the names of the people, the name of the firm, the firm's location and, in rare situations, changed even the industry. Disguise is often used when the case focuses on sensitive issues that make it impossible to obtain a signed release to publish without the disguise. The case writer must disclose the extent of the disguise in a footnote in the opening of the case itself and in the research methodology section in the Instructor's Manual (IM). To be clear, disguised cases must be accompanied by a signed release if the case uses internal information. The signed release protects sources from criticism and liability if the disguise should be penetrated.
Do journals publish fictionalized “cases”?
Most case journals do not publish fictionalized cases. The Editorial Policy of TCJ states that TCJ “publishes factual teaching cases spanning the full spectrum of business” (The CASE Journal, 2021a). On the Emerald Group Publishing website, the journal’s policy states that “cases must be factual: that is using real people, real companies—no composites” (The CASE Journal, 2021b). If the editor suspects a submission is fictionalized, she confers with the authors to clarify the situation and then desk rejects the manuscript as soon as its fictional basis is determined.
Why not fictionalized “cases”?
Proponents of fictionalized “cases” often argue that the literary license used to create their “cases” makes the stories more engaging for students, simplifies complex situations, or is necessary to permit the development of stories surrounding controversial or embarrassing situations. The primary reason most case journals and case research professional organizations (such as NACRA, its affiliates and The CASE Association) insist on factual cases is that we want cases to be viewed as legitimate scholarly/intellectual contributions worthy of consideration as research. Thus, cases MUST NOT be fictionalized.
What are the “red flags”?
What are the “red flags” that signal a potential fictionalization? A mismatch between the information in the case and the stated methodology used to research the case is often a clue. If the research methodology section says that only secondary sources were used to research the case, but the case itself contains internal dialogue from the CEO, the editor might wonder how the case writer would know what the CEO was thinking. Another giveaway is stilted dialogue in the case. If the protagonist speaks in an artificial and overly formal way, the editor may wonder if the case is fictionalized. A third red flag may be if there is a narrator that seems to know everything that is going on. This character is everywhere in the case and seems to exist only to advance the story line. Sometimes, this character is an intern, sometimes an analyst, but it is usually clear that the character knows more than one might reasonably expect such a person to know. A fourth red flag is if everything in the case is just too perfect. We might say that the situation for this type of fictionalized case “doesn’t ring true.” The editor’s disguise radar “pings” and flashing lights go off in her head as something is not quite right with the case. Once it is established that the case is fictionalized, the case is desk rejected without review.
Rules for disguised cases
TCJ and many other case journals DO publish disguised cases. Disguise is often used if the case situation is too sensitive or to avoid subjecting case characters to embarrassment or criticism. For these reasons, disguise is often used when writing business ethics cases – especially if the conduct of the firm is questionable. Case writers are permitted to disguise the names of persons, the name of the organization involved, the geographic area and the financials; however, actions of people and the essential issues must stay as close to the actual situation as possible (Seeger and Rock, 2012). If insider information is used in developing the case, a signed consent to publish release is still necessary for publication (Rock, 2012). Disguised cases are based on observations of an actual situation, thus meeting the generally accepted case writing standards to be considered legitimate intellectual contributions.
Disguise tips
What are the “tricks of the trade” for successfully disguising cases? Consider the following disguise tips:
Take care in “moving” the organization to a new geographic location. It must make sense in the context of the case. The chosen place must “fit” the demographics, economic, social, political and cultural aspects of the original location if the integrity of the case situation is to be preserved. Some cases use generic locations to avoid revealing the exact location of the firm. The case writer may write about a “small, liberal arts college in Massachusetts” rather than actual name of the college or its precise location.
Changing the names of individuals in the case may be necessary. Take care to choose names that are appropriate and not too “creative.” Names that are very common such as Mary Smith, often signal to students that the case is fictionalized and may shut down discussion. Choose appropriate names given the ethnicity and gender of the actual individual (especially if diversity or gender issues are a part of the case). Avoid using creative names that signal the disposition or personality of the individual. “Debbie Downer” as a whistleblower in a case comes across more as comedic relief and may distract students from performing the desired analysis and evaluation of the case.
Using a different name for an organization or its competitors may be necessary but challenging to accomplish. Unless the firm is tiny, and the industry is very fragmented, astute readers will be able to penetrate the disguise and identify the actual firm. Make sure that the disguised name you choose is not the actual name of a genuine firm in the industry. A quick Google search may prevent a libel lawsuit by revealing an existing firm with the name you have chosen as your disguise.
Changing the products or industry may be going too far as the context of the case may be critical to student understanding of the issues. Most case writers concede that this type of disguise is complicated to pull off effectively. Typically, the product and industry are too central to the context of the case to be disguised. Some organizational behavior or human resource management cases may be more easily disguised as the focus of these cases typically rely more on the interpersonal relationships between the individuals in the case than it does on specific products or industries.
Financial data are typically disguised by multiplying all items in the financial statement by a constant factor. If the factor is more than five percent (higher or lower) than the actual numbers, it may distort the firm's performance, especially when compared to competitors (Seeger and Rock, 2012). It may be best to find a public source for the financial data that can then be cited or to aggregate the financials to conceal data that the company considers too sensitive to be disclosed. Alternatively, the case writer could overcome the firm’s request to disguise financial data by discussing the typical timeline for case publication (it is often a year or more from the interviews to the appearance of the case in a journal). When the case is ultimately published, much of the data will already be known by competitors, board members or others (Naumes and Naumes, 2012).
Case writers need to remember that disguise is most frequently used to secure a signed consent to publish form for cases that involve primary data sources. The case writer must clearly disclose the nature of the disguise in a footnote on the first page of the case. Sample footnotes are shown as Table 1.
Examples of disguise footnotes
| Footnote | Disguise used |
|---|---|
| “The organizations, people, and events described in the Case are real, but have been disguised for confidentiality purposes.” (Parra and Pinzon, 2020) | Organization, people, some events |
| “The organization is real as are the facts related to the decision presented; however, some employee names and other details concerning the employees mentioned in this case have been changed.” (Risavy and Woodwark, 2020) | Employee names and minor details regarding the employees |
| “The company, case characters and situation are real however, financial figures have been disguised at the request of the company.” (McGovern and Hilterbrand, 2020) | Financial figures |
| Footnote | Disguise used |
|---|---|
| “The organizations, people, and events described in the Case are real, but have been disguised for confidentiality purposes.” ( | Organization, people, some events |
| “The organization is real as are the facts related to the decision presented; however, some employee names and other details concerning the employees mentioned in this case have been changed.” ( | Employee names and minor details regarding the employees |
| “The company, case characters and situation are real however, financial figures have been disguised at the request of the company.” ( | Financial figures |
Notice that the authors all chose to emphasize those elements that were real or unchanged while also describing the disguised elements. This format confirms for students that the case was based on facts – real people, actual events in real organizations. The case context is unchanged, but some elements have understandably been changed for confidentiality and privacy reasons.
Secondary sourced cases use appropriate citations of data sources and typically do not require any form of disguise. However, it would be acceptable for ethics cases or organizational behavior cases to change the names of people in the case rather than subject them to unnecessary scrutiny or derision.
Disguised cases provide critical learning opportunities for students. If disguised cases were not permitted, case collections would contain only cases of successful, ethical companies that did not pollute, discriminate or produce harmful products. Students would miss the learning that could be gained from studying what not to do. They would not have opportunities to practice critical problem solving skills and learning would be sacrificed.
Many case writers’ first preference may be to preserve the realism of the situation by not using disguise. However, getting good work published may require a compromise between the case writer’s preferences and the organization’s desire to conceal sensitive data. Becoming a “Master of Disguise” may be the only way to publish a great case that will yield powerful learning outcomes. Use disguise when needed. Your case may be published, students will achieve the learning outcomes you wanted, and most importantly, the goodwill of the organization will be maintained. Disguise may create a winning solution for all.
In this issue
This issue includes seven cases (Table 2) 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 instructors can teach these cases as well as the authors. Enjoy!
Cases in this issue
| Case title and target audience | Authors | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| Peloton's ride to growth Target audience: Undergraduate and graduate strategy courses | Christopher Wincester, Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, A. Erin Bass | Peloton used vertical integration to control the creation of its own software, bikes, exercise classes and retail outlets. In doing so, Peloton was one of the first companies in the industry to have near full control of the production process (Gross and Caisman, 2019). Due to this integration, Peloton was one of the fitness equipment industry leaders. However, Peloton’s high level of vertical integration coupled with rapid growth led to lackluster profitability. Given the rise in popularity of in-home exercise equipment, Peloton had room to continue its growth, but the question remained whether it was strategically positioned to do so |
| Growing pains—a case study from Nordic higher education Target audience: Undergraduate and graduate business, organizational or administrative courses | Oyvin Kyvik | The case tells the story of Birk Grimson (PhD), a professional who returns to academia after many years of business practice in the private sector. He is struck by how different the work-ambience is in academia, and how bureaucracy and a rigid organizational structure seem to quell innovation, resulting in resistance to systematic learning, organizational development and strategic change |
| Growth through repositioning—the case of IHCL Target audience: Graduate students (MBA) in Product and Brand Management courses | Shobha Menon | The case examines the recent revisions in branding strategies by IHCL. Choosing a brand architecture is a strategic decision in response to the market conditions and must change as competitive conditions evolve. Repositioning involves changing the market's perceptions of an offering so that it can effectively compete in its present target segments. Paradoxically, a certain amount of continuity is also essential to the brand’s development over time. The case helps students to view the brand from two angles: brand identity and brand growth. The brand relationship spectrum will help students to identify the various strategies in branding architecture |
| The downfall of fairness era—road ahead for HUL’s Dove, Fair and Lovely Target audience: Graduate consumer behavior, new product development or marketing courses | S. Jayakrishnan | Johnson and Johnson in June 2020 decided to stop selling products under the category of skin-lightening popularly known as fairness creams in Asian markets, especially India. This created a dilemma for popular brands such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Loreal and P&G, which had brands under this category. Among all these brands the biggest challenge was for HUL which was a major player in this segment. The case discusses the cosmetic industry in India and how HUL responded to this situation |
| The saga of a Chinese company being listed on a US Stock Exchange: a global financial reporting case study Target audience: Upper-level undergraduate accounting and finance courses such as Intermediate Accounting, Auditing, Financial Statement analysis, Corporate Finance | Miranda Lam, Hayanti Bandyopadhyay, Hongtao, Guo, Jinying Liu | China Gerui, a Chinese metal fabrication company, enjoyed exponential growth due to its location, product innovation and ability to move up the value chain. At the height of its success, the company listed on the Nasdaq and had plans to raise capital to fund ambitious expansion plans. Unfortunately, 4 years after listing on Nasdaq, the company received a letter from the listing qualifications department notifying China Gerui that they were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements because it had not filed its Form 20-F. Now the company had only five days to decide whether to request an appeal of the letter |
| Zealvita: winning market formula Target audience: Graduate marketing strategy or Sales Promotion courses, executive education programs | Jayanthi Thanigan, Surya Mahadevan, Srinivasa Reddy | Zealvita is a challenger brand to NutriMalt in the white malted food drink category. It has a product formula that compares favorably on taste and equally on nutrition. However, Zealvita is not able to translate the power product formula to a winning market formula. Drawing on its legacy and strong adoption route, NutriMalt built a dominant 88% market share in the White Malted Food drink category. The market rule of “disproportionate market share for the leading brand” applies with inexorable force in MFD. Smarting at the low market share, Zealvita is in search of a marketing strategy to create churn. Rajiv Product Manager of Zealvita believes that consumer sales promotion of a higher order and at a higher frequency than what is normal can tilt the scales. From Zealvita’s perspective is there a strategic advantage in operating consumer promotion? Is it safe to assume that NutriMalt will not retaliate with consumer promotion? Can consumer sales promotion be sustained at planned frequency? What is the logic in a continuous consumer promotion program? |
| Starbucks and HMSHost: addressing discrimination across organizational boundaries Target audience: Graduate and undergraduate human resource management or labor relations courses | Ram Subramanian, Kelly Hall, Juanne Greene, Emily Tichenor | In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer |
| Case title and target audience | Authors | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| Peloton's ride to growth | Christopher Wincester, Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, A. Erin Bass | Peloton used vertical integration to control the creation of its own software, bikes, exercise classes and retail outlets. In doing so, Peloton was one of the first companies in the industry to have near full control of the production process (Gross and Caisman, 2019). Due to this integration, Peloton was one of the fitness equipment industry leaders. However, Peloton’s high level of vertical integration coupled with rapid growth led to lackluster profitability. Given the rise in popularity of in-home exercise equipment, Peloton had room to continue its growth, but the question remained whether it was strategically positioned to do so |
| Growing pains—a case study from Nordic higher education | Oyvin Kyvik | The case tells the story of Birk Grimson (PhD), a professional who returns to academia after many years of business practice in the private sector. He is struck by how different the work-ambience is in academia, and how bureaucracy and a rigid organizational structure seem to quell innovation, resulting in resistance to systematic learning, organizational development and strategic change |
| Growth through repositioning—the case of IHCL | Shobha Menon | The case examines the recent revisions in branding strategies by IHCL. Choosing a brand architecture is a strategic decision in response to the market conditions and must change as competitive conditions evolve. Repositioning involves changing the market's perceptions of an offering so that it can effectively compete in its present target segments. Paradoxically, a certain amount of continuity is also essential to the brand’s development over time. The case helps students to view the brand from two angles: brand identity and brand growth. The brand relationship spectrum will help students to identify the various strategies in branding architecture |
| The downfall of fairness era—road ahead for HUL’s Dove, Fair and Lovely | S. Jayakrishnan | Johnson and Johnson in June 2020 decided to stop selling products under the category of skin-lightening popularly known as fairness creams in Asian markets, especially India. This created a dilemma for popular brands such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Loreal and P&G, which had brands under this category. Among all these brands the biggest challenge was for HUL which was a major player in this segment. The case discusses the cosmetic industry in India and how HUL responded to this situation |
| The saga of a Chinese company being listed on a US Stock Exchange: a global financial reporting case study | Miranda Lam, Hayanti Bandyopadhyay, Hongtao, Guo, Jinying Liu | China Gerui, a Chinese metal fabrication company, enjoyed exponential growth due to its location, product innovation and ability to move up the value chain. At the height of its success, the company listed on the Nasdaq and had plans to raise capital to fund ambitious expansion plans. Unfortunately, 4 years after listing on Nasdaq, the company received a letter from the listing qualifications department notifying China Gerui that they were not in compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements because it had not filed its Form 20-F. Now the company had only five days to decide whether to request an appeal of the letter |
| Zealvita: winning market formula | Jayanthi Thanigan, Surya Mahadevan, Srinivasa Reddy | Zealvita is a challenger brand to NutriMalt in the white malted food drink category. It has a product formula that compares favorably on taste and equally on nutrition. However, Zealvita is not able to translate the power product formula to a winning market formula. Drawing on its legacy and strong adoption route, NutriMalt built a dominant 88% market share in the White Malted Food drink category. The market rule of “disproportionate market share for the leading brand” applies with inexorable force in MFD. Smarting at the low market share, Zealvita is in search of a marketing strategy to create churn. Rajiv Product Manager of Zealvita believes that consumer sales promotion of a higher order and at a higher frequency than what is normal can tilt the scales. From Zealvita’s perspective is there a strategic advantage in operating consumer promotion? Is it safe to assume that NutriMalt will not retaliate with consumer promotion? Can consumer sales promotion be sustained at planned frequency? What is the logic in a continuous consumer promotion program? |
| Starbucks and HMSHost: addressing discrimination across organizational boundaries | Ram Subramanian, Kelly Hall, Juanne Greene, Emily Tichenor | In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer |
Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.
