Case Studies in Sustainability Management and Strategy

The oikos collection

Jost Hamschmidt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781906093013
• eBook ISBN: 9781351280266
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

With the rapidly growing importance of sustainability and corporate responsibility in a globalised world, management schools are increasingly integrating long-term economic, environmental and social issues into their teaching and research. Climate change, poverty, labour standards and human rights are among the many topics that future decision-makers will need to face in their careers. Business education needs to reflect this new reality and provide a broadened understanding of value creation in order to create economic capital while developing social and preserving natural capital. Many sustainability trends also offer interesting new business opportunities that are ripe for entrepreneurial thinking.

Case studies can be important tools for creating learning processes on different levels - students are forced to struggle with exactly the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers confront every day. In this reflection of reality, the values and goals of the student are systematically challenged. This can be especially valuable in the context of sustainability and strategy - organisations are now continually forced to value the different aspects of sustainability and their interrelations: How do social issues impact the economic bottom line? How can an environmentally sound strategy create a positive impact on employee motivation and thus have measurable impact on economic performance? What comes first and why?

But excellent case studies for management education in the field of sustainability management and strategy are rare. This innovative collection has been produced to fill this gap. It is based on the winning cases of an annual competition organised by oikos - the international Student Organization for Sustainable Economics and Management. So what makes an excellent case in sustainability management? These cases have been highly praised because they provide excellent learning opportunities, tell engaging stories, deal with recent situations, include quotations from key actors, are thought-provoking and controversial, require decision-making and provide clear take-aways.

These cases explore both the opportunities and pitfalls companies and NGOs face in targeting sustainability issues and how their values and core assumptions impact their business strategies. They deal with a myriad of issues including supply chain management, stakeholder dialogue, social entrepreneurship, sustainable marketing, ethics, governance, the business case for sustainability, partnerships, purchasing and climate change.

Case Studies in Sustainability Management and Strategy

is an essential purchase for educators and is likely to be a widely used as a course textbook at all levels of management education.

Online Teaching Notes to accompany each chapter are available on request with the purchase of the book.

Part 1
Introduction

1.1
Preface

This book has been produced to provide teaching cases for management education in the field of sustainability, management and strategy. The collection is based on the winning cases of the oikos Case Writing Competition¹—an annual competition organized by oikos: the International Student Organization for Sustainable Economics and Management. oikos aims to support the integration of sustainability issues into teaching and research at the world's faculties for economics and management. The oikos Case Collection reflects this objective and aims to add relevant content to corporate sustainability education at management schools worldwide. We see the case method as one important teaching concept that is able to intertwine theoretical concepts with hands-on experiences, based on real-life organizations. We believe that this is a method that prepares the business students of today to deal with contemporary challenges.

In view of the growing importance of various sustainability trends, management schools are increasingly integrating long-term economic, environmental and social issues into their teaching and research. Climate change, water scarcity, labor standards and human rights issues are among the many examples of issues that future decision-makers will will need to face in their careers. Business education needs to reflect this and provide a broadened understanding of value creation. Sustainability is a concept that demands that organizations consider the legitimate expectations of different stakeholders in their value creation processes. At the same time, it underlines the fact that many sustainability trends offer interesting new business opportunities that entrepreneurs will seize. As a result, value creation processes need to be reorganized in order to create economic capital while developing social capital and preserving natural capital.

Indeed, organizations are increasingly dealing with these challenges. The 12 case studies in this book explore both the opportunities and pitfalls companies and NGOs face in targeting sustainability issues and how their values and core assumptions impact their business strategies.

Surprisingly, there are only a few cases on multinational companies represented here. Although there is a growing need, the production of excellent teaching cases in the field of sustainable economics and management lags far behind. Despite the tide of publications on corporate social responsibility and sustainability management, few suitable cases on multinationals seem to be available. Therefore, we hope to stimulate the production of new cases with this volume. As an incentive, the reader will find in Chapter 1.2 an introduction to the characteristics of excellent cases. And in Chapter 6 we provide additional information on external sources dealing with the case writing process, international case competitions and case collections. We also present specific information on the oikos Case Writing Competition and provide short CVs of the oikos Award Committee, an international board of 20 selected scholars from. Europe, the Americas and Asia. Finally, we provide background information on oikos, the International Student Organization for Sustainable Economics and Management.

Jost Hamschmidt
St Gallen, June 2007

1 For more information on this competition please consult Chapter 6.4 or http://www.oikos-foundation.unisg.ch/homepage/case.htm.

1.2
Cases in Corporate Sustainability

What Makes an Excellent Case?

The case method of teaching was developed by Faculty of the Harvard Business School¹ and the Ivey School of Business in the 1920s. The basic idea was to simulate real business challenges in the classroom in order to breathe life and instill greater meaning into the lessons of management education. Case studies can be important tools for creating learning processes on different levels—students are forced to struggle with exactly the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers confront every day. In this reflection of reality, the values and goals of the student are systematically challenged. Uncertainty is key: students are asked what they think, how they would act, and what challenges they feel are important. The use of a case study should create a classroom in which students succeed by exercising the skills of leadership and teamwork in the face of real problems. Facts, figures and theories play an important role; but contexts, emotions and value judgments have a large influence, too. Guided by a faculty member, students cooperate, analyze and synthesize conflicting data and points of view. The objective is to define and prioritize goals, to persuade and inspire others who think differently, to make tough decisions with uncertain information, and to seize opportunities in the face of doubt.

These attributes are especially valuable in the context of sustainability and strategy; organizations are now continually forced to value the different aspects of sustainability and their interrelations: How do social issues impact the economic bottom line? How can an environmentally sound strategy create a positive impact on employee motivation and thus have measurable impact on economic performance? What comes first and why? These are just some of the many questions that may arise.

What makes an excellent case in sustainability management? There are multiple case "recipes" available, e.g. via the Internet, and a vast literature about case writing and teaching.² Many of these tips and hints can be applied to sustainability cases. In this section we propose ten features of an excellent case, which are derived from experience with the oikos Case Writing Competition. They also echo the lessons of a classic article by Clyde Freeman Herreid.³

1. An excellent case provides a learning opportunity on a relevant topic. The case should tackle a decision situation with impact on the future of an organization and implications for corporate strategy. It should be a real case, not just a story. And it should identify clear-cut management decisions (i.e. merge or not; compete or cooperate).
2. An excellent case tells an engaging story. It should have an interesting plot that relates to the experiences of the target audience. It needs a hero, a dilemma and a solution. The solution may not exist yet; it will be what the students need to supply once the case is discussed.
3. An excellent case is accompanied by teaching goals and a teaching note. It should be explicit which audience is being addressed with the case. Undergraduates have a different background compared to MBA students. What does the case do for the course and the student? What theories are employed? How should the students be involved (e.g. group works, student preparation, class interaction). Cases can be choreographed with role-plays and/or voting. Students need to be systematically challenged to argue. Excellent cases provide suggestions for frameworks and literature for faculty and students.
4. An excellent case is based on a recent situation. To appear real the story should have the trappings of a current challenge. If a student has just seen the problem mentioned in the media, so much the better. Thus, a case on corporate strategies to deal with climate change will arouse the students' interest more than one on Shell's Brent Spar Platform disposal challenge.
5. An excellent case includes quotations. Digital technology has made the life of case writers easier; nowadays it has become simple to produce a short film on the "hero" of a case. A face and a voice is the best way to gain empathy for the leading characters: let them speak in their own voices. If this is not possible, use quotations and add life and drama to the case. Quotations from other sources, e.g. leading newspapers, advertisements or internal documents, should be used as well. They make your case more authentic.
6. An excellent case is relevant to the audience. Cases should be chosen that involve situations that the students know or are likely to face. This improves the empathy factor and makes the case clearly something worth studying. Thus, for a graduate student in finance, a case involving George Soros's opinion on Tobin taxes might be of greater interest than barter trade in Papua New Guinea.
7. An excellent case is conflict-provoking. It should provide food for thought and should leave room for different interpretations. It should fuel the debate on an issue. Take, for example, the Hindustan Lever case in this book (pp. 146-163): Is it really sustainable?
8. An excellent case is decision-forcing. Not all cases have to be dilemmas that need to be solved, but there must be an urgency and a seriousness in such cases. Best-practice cases are often boring for the reader whereas, in dilemma or decision cases, students are forced to face challenges head-on. Provide a time-line and sufficient data in order to enable well-reasoned options.
9. An excellent case has generality. Cases should be of more use than addressing a minor or local problem; they should have general applicability. The case writer should make sure that the case provides useful generalizations and clear take-aways. Patterns should be recognizable and key insights should be aimed for—for on-the-job application or for confidence in mastering similar challenges in the future. (Take, for example, the Body Shop case in this book [pp. 228-253] 5 what are the implications for other takeovers?)
10. An excellent case is as short as possible. This is basically a matter of attention span. Cases should be long enough to introduce the facts of the case but they should be carefully designed in order to keep interest high. Complexity can be introduced in stages. Case series can help in structuring the information. Data can be provided accompanied by some questions and a first decision point before additional information is introduced. Remember that the average person is not able to digest more than three pieces of information at a time. (Take, for example, the Mobility case in this book [pp. 254-278]: why is it structured as it is?)
11. Finally: an excellent case is one that is revised after a first try in class. Very often case writers take implicit knowledge for granted and the perception of the case presented in class is different from what was expected. Different mental models and understandings of the foundations of management might also hinder the applicability of cases in different geographical and cultural contexts. This is a growing challenge in a world economy, where regional contexts are often key to understanding markets and society in order to guarantee long-term business success.⁴ At the same time, this represents a great opportunity, since an explicit description of business models and dilemmas in a specific context does contribute to a better understanding of cultural foundations and underlying values of the environments in which businesses are operating.

1 This introductory paragraph is based on information available at http://www.hbs.edu/case and McNair and Hersum 1954.

2 See e.g. Heath 2006; Leenders et al. 2001.

3 Herreid 1997.

4 See e.g. Friedman 2001.

1.3
Teaching Notes

Combining Contents with Concepts

Excellent cases are always linked to learning objectives, which include concepts, theories and methodologies. However, the underlying conceptual ideas are sometimes not wholly explicit in the case; therefore, teaching notes provide the means for an educator to explore the full learning potential of a case in class. Within the oikos Competition we have observed a surprisingly widespread lack of knowledge concerning concepts, goals and contents of case teaching notes. In this section we therefore provide a brief description of what useful teaching notes should look like.¹

Teaching notes should provide useful background information in order to better understand a case. According to the European Case Clearing House,² which holds the world’s biggest case collection, only about 50% of their registered cases are accompanied by teaching notes. However, 80% of the 50 most popular cases do provide teaching notes. This leads us to the assumption that teaching notes confer important benefits to case instructors.

All of the cases included in this book have excellent teaching notes, which are available for faculty, free of charge, by request from Greenleaf Publishing at the following link:

Basically, teaching notes are guidance documents which enable potential case instructors to teach a case, providing a case summary, teaching goals, key issues, concepts, open questions and potential approaches to the case. While the style, length and design of a teaching note may vary widely, we consider here the following elements:³

•Case summary. The case summary is a short version of the case and highlights the major points. What is the context and storyline? Who are the main players? What is issue framed by the case? The aim is to provide the case instructor with the key elements of the story as concisely as possible.

•Case teaching objectives, target audience, targeted courses. A teaching note explicitly clarifies the teaching objectives (e.g. concerning content and theoretical concepts), target audiences (e.g. undergraduates, MBA or executive MBA students). It should also mention the courses in which the case can be applied. Is the case suitable for a mainstream marketing, strategy or management course or should it be taught in an environmental management or CSR course? What knowledge base is needed in order to successfully deal with the case?

•Sources of the case material. The case author should explain how the case was developed, including the steps involved in information gathering and data collection (e.g. interviews with company representatives and/or stakeholders, annual reports, media reports, Internet searches, press coverage, internal documents, scientific articles, etc.).

•Teaching approach and didactic elements. The teaching note should enable the transfer of knowledge. Cases are question-oriented and the teaching note should systematically help the instructor to raise relevant questions in order to promote a learning experience. It should also provide possible answers to questions that are likely to arise during in-class discussion. Questions can be developed to prepare students for in-class discussion, in order to open or to advance the discussion. It might be helpful to develop an ideal structure for this, where each issue is allocated a certain amount of time. These guidelines serve as a starting point for the instructor and will have to be adapted to suit particular circumstances. Other didactic elements can be the introduction of additional information during the course, the use of the blackboard, online research during class, suggestions for group work, role-plays, or student assignments in order to consolidate the learning process.

•Analysis and methods. Of course, the questions posed in a case require answers. Therefore, the teaching note should include the necessary links to concepts and theories and provide comprehensive response options to the questions. The frameworks provided should also help the students to develop their personal synthesis and should encourage further reflection. It should be noted that an excellent case will have multiple “solutions” to business challenges. Teaching notes should therefore reflect possible trade-offs among competing alternatives (e.g. how to evaluate a short-term cost reduction against a long-term reputational risk). The identification of trade-offs and the understanding of the logic of these trade-offs will improve the students’ strategic perspective on business challenges in a sustainability context.

•Further reading, references, media support. A further reading and reference list, useful in mastering the concepts and theories addressed by the case, should be provided. Suggestions for reading assignments for students are helpful; and references to relevant websites and other sources of information are becoming increasingly important. The use of additional multimedia support, if available, should be briefly outlined.

•Feedback and perspectives. Teaching notes should also communicate any tips or hints the author has gained from their personal teaching experience with the case. What has worked well and what has not and for what reasons? If there is information available on the real outcome of a case, it should be included in the teaching notes. Also helpful are suggestions for other possible avenues of exploration, which could provide the basis for a more detailed study or some form of knowledge transfer in other cont...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Managing Multiple Value Creation Processes
• Part 3: Innovative Partnership Models
• Part 4: Sustainability Strategies in the South
• Part 5: Sustainable Business Models and Stakeholder Tension
• Part 6: Resources