Cases in this issue
| Case title and target audience | Authors | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| “Traci Lynn jewelry: an entrepreneur maximizing shining opportunities” Audience: upper division undergraduates; suitable for courses in entrepreneurial strategy, entrepreneurial marketing, general entrepreneurship emphasizing opportunity identification, opportunity assessment and/or effectuation | Caroline E. Glackin | This case explores the opportunity identification, assessment and decision-making of an energetic, African American, female founder and CEO in the rarely researched direct selling channel. Dr Traci Lynn Burton founded her company at 24 with an investment of $200. In 2008, in its second incarnation, Traci Lynn Jewelry became a direct selling company and has taken bold steps. By 2018 the company was a direct selling leader and was preparing to launch a new product line. The case supports undergraduate students in understanding effectuation and causation, opportunity identification and assessment, and direct selling |
| “Assessing a golden opportunity: CEO performance at McDonald’s” Audience: intermediate financial accounting courses for undergraduates, introductory graduate accounting courses or other courses with an element of financial statement analysis | Paquita Y. Davis-Friday and Lee Boyar | This case examines the role of financial accounting in evaluating CEO performance in the context of the appointment of McDonald’s first African-American chief executive and his subsequent two-and-a-half years on the job. The case deepens students’ understanding of the link between financial reporting and stewardship, while highlighting the subjectivity inherent in assessing managerial performance, particularly over relatively short time periods. As students analyze the case, they must consider the extent to which a firm’s results are attributable to luck vs skill. We use “skill” to refer to CEO effort and other controllable factors, while “luck” refers to exogenous factors, such as macroeconomic conditions. Assessing stewardship is of practical significance. It allows pay to be better aligned with performance and empowers stakeholders to identify when a change of leadership may be warranted. The case may also be used to spur reflection, in an applied context, on the importance of being alert to unconscious bias, even when evaluating seemingly objective financial reporting data. Recent research, discussed herein, suggests that business students sometimes exhibit bias when making assessments |
| “Guess who’s coming to deliver? Tough decisions about race in the workplace” Audience: undergraduate and graduate organizational behavior and human resource management courses | Katina Williams Thompson and Susan Dustin | “Guess who’s coming to deliver” is a case that examines an event that occurred at Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse in late July and early August of 2015. A customer who had purchased some products from Lowe’s requested that only White delivery people be dispatched to her home because she did not allow African-American people in her house. The case is factual and was written from information that was publicly available in the media. The case is designed to help instructors facilitate a meaningful classroom discussion about micro aggressions from different stakeholder perspectives |
| “Building positive relationships in the first 100 days” Audience: upper level leadership or organizational behavior courses; the case can be adopted for graduate courses and executive education depending upon the work experience of the individuals | Shontarius Aikens | Winston Thompson is the new Residential Manager of Drayson Residential Complex at Sybel University. After meeting with staff in his area of responsibility and learning about the complexities of his new position, Winston needs to determine the best way to build positive relationships with each member of the leadership team in his complex. In this case, students are challenged to determine the best relationship building approach for each staff member using concepts from leader-member exchange (LMX) theory while also taking into consideration issues of race, age, and gender |
| “Green Forever Landscaping and Design, Inc.: how an entrepreneur grew his business” Audience: introductory undergraduate and graduate level courses in entrepreneurship | Minnette Bumpus and Nikita Floyd | Nikita, a 50-year old, African American male, had grown his business from a one-person seasonal landscaping business to a year-round landscaping and design business with full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees and an array of services and customer segments. To his delight, he was able to unite his avocation with his vocation. With over 30 years of experience in landscaping and landscape design Nikita was always scanning the landscape for new business opportunities that would align with his company’s mission statement and help sustain Green Forever’s core business |
| “Ghacem in Ghana: marketing cement in a newly competitive environment” Audience: undergraduate or graduate introductory marketing courses; or international business courses | Israel Kpekpena and Haiyan Hu | Ghacem was the first cement manufacturing company in Ghana and had enjoyed a monopoly for almost 33 years. The company offered a homogeneous product to an undifferentiated market from 1967 until competition began in 2000. New competitors promoted the use of cement grade numbers on their product packaging to signal a better value, which intensified the competition. As the Head of Marketing of the company, Benny was asked to develop a marketing strategy for the company’s newly developed product for the company to remain competitive. This case emerges students in the cement market in Ghana and gives them an opportunity to apply marketing concepts in an authentic environment |
| Case title and target audience | Authors | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| “Traci Lynn jewelry: an entrepreneur maximizing shining opportunities” | Caroline E. Glackin | This case explores the opportunity identification, assessment and decision-making of an energetic, African American, female founder and CEO in the rarely researched direct selling channel. Dr Traci Lynn Burton founded her company at 24 with an investment of $200. In 2008, in its second incarnation, Traci Lynn Jewelry became a direct selling company and has taken bold steps. By 2018 the company was a direct selling leader and was preparing to launch a new product line. The case supports undergraduate students in understanding effectuation and causation, opportunity identification and assessment, and direct selling |
| “Assessing a golden opportunity: CEO performance at McDonald’s” | Paquita Y. Davis-Friday and Lee Boyar | This case examines the role of financial accounting in evaluating CEO performance in the context of the appointment of McDonald’s first African-American chief executive and his subsequent two-and-a-half years on the job. The case deepens students’ understanding of the link between financial reporting and stewardship, while highlighting the subjectivity inherent in assessing managerial performance, particularly over relatively short time periods. As students analyze the case, they must consider the extent to which a firm’s results are attributable to luck vs skill. We use “skill” to refer to CEO effort and other controllable factors, while “luck” refers to exogenous factors, such as macroeconomic conditions. Assessing stewardship is of practical significance. It allows pay to be better aligned with performance and empowers stakeholders to identify when a change of leadership may be warranted. The case may also be used to spur reflection, in an applied context, on the importance of being alert to unconscious bias, even when evaluating seemingly objective financial reporting data. Recent research, discussed herein, suggests that business students sometimes exhibit bias when making assessments |
| “Guess who’s coming to deliver? Tough decisions about race in the workplace” | Katina Williams Thompson and Susan Dustin | “Guess who’s coming to deliver” is a case that examines an event that occurred at Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse in late July and early August of 2015. A customer who had purchased some products from Lowe’s requested that only White delivery people be dispatched to her home because she did not allow African-American people in her house. The case is factual and was written from information that was publicly available in the media. The case is designed to help instructors facilitate a meaningful classroom discussion about micro aggressions from different stakeholder perspectives |
| “Building positive relationships in the first 100 days” | Shontarius Aikens | Winston Thompson is the new Residential Manager of Drayson Residential Complex at Sybel University. After meeting with staff in his area of responsibility and learning about the complexities of his new position, Winston needs to determine the best way to build positive relationships with each member of the leadership team in his complex. In this case, students are challenged to determine the best relationship building approach for each staff member using concepts from leader-member exchange (LMX) theory while also taking into consideration issues of race, age, and gender |
| “Green Forever Landscaping and Design, Inc.: how an entrepreneur grew his business” | Minnette Bumpus and Nikita Floyd | Nikita, a 50-year old, African American male, had grown his business from a one-person seasonal landscaping business to a year-round landscaping and design business with full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees and an array of services and customer segments. To his delight, he was able to unite his avocation with his vocation. With over 30 years of experience in landscaping and landscape design Nikita was always scanning the landscape for new business opportunities that would align with his company’s mission statement and help sustain Green Forever’s core business |
| “Ghacem in Ghana: marketing cement in a newly competitive environment” | Israel Kpekpena and Haiyan Hu | Ghacem was the first cement manufacturing company in Ghana and had enjoyed a monopoly for almost 33 years. The company offered a homogeneous product to an undifferentiated market from 1967 until competition began in 2000. New competitors promoted the use of cement grade numbers on their product packaging to signal a better value, which intensified the competition. As the Head of Marketing of the company, Benny was asked to develop a marketing strategy for the company’s newly developed product for the company to remain competitive. This case emerges students in the cement market in Ghana and gives them an opportunity to apply marketing concepts in an authentic environment |
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