For Chinese corporation Haier Inc, the biggest seller of major appliances in the world, entering India as an emerging market multinational is like having a double-edged sword. Its global presence gives it credibility to offer more sophisticated products that warrant a premium price, but Indian consumers have yet to develop the willingness to embrace its China-made, high-priced products. Seven years into its India business endeavours, sales remained sluggish and market share minimal. The company then undertook a swift change in pricing strategies and overhauled its marketing infrastructure to save its market. The case provides an overview of the situation and lends a discussion of marketing and localisation strategies of emerging market multinationals in India. It also gives insights into the challenges these multinational corporations face. The case also explores issues of product offerings, brand communication, pricing strategies, market capture and late-comer disadvantages. The comparison between Haier's behaviours in India and other markets also points to the level of localisation/globalisation the company adopts across markets.
Three years into a major public-private partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and Fiocuz, Brazil's principal health institute, the company assesses technology transfer and joint research under the agreement. GSK was selling its Synflorix vaccine (against pediatric pneumonia) at fixed prices even as it transferred technology and know-how to Brazil for eventual domestic production. At the same time, GSK was co-sponsoring research into a new vaccine for Dengue fever with the Brazilian government. GSK's management must consider whether the PPP provides strategic advantage to its consumer healthcare businesses in Brazil and to access other emerging markets as well as the risks posed by the aggressive product obsolescence built into the technology transfer agreement.
In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and without price setting, strategic complements and substitutes and their implications for commitment and for first-mover advantage, the effect of the number of competitors on the competitiveness of a market, capacity limitations and judo economics, natural monopoly and the effect of market size, technology choice as entry deterrence, endogenous economies of scale, and capacity limitation in commodity markets. It can be used to introduce these concepts without necessarily relying on a lot of math or as an intuitive complement to a more mathematical exposition.
This is the first in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This technical note introduces students to the essential elements of convincing empirical research using regression. Students who read this note will be prepared to perform an unstructured research project. The note presents ten essential steps in research, starting with model development and ending with presentation of results. Coverage is given to important subjects such as identification and model robustness.
This is the second in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This technical note reviews the basic elements of regression analysis. Students who read this note will be able to explain the fundamental principals of regression, including (1) regression as an alegbraic equation; (2) dummy variables and nonlinear terms; (3) R-squared and goodness of fit; and (4) reporting the significance and economic importance of regression coefficients. Having completed this note, students will be prepared to study the special topics in regression that are covered in other notes in this series.
This is the fifth in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This technical note discusses fixed effects models. Though a unified example, the note shows how omitted variable bias can plague estimates in cross-section regressions and how focusing attention on intragroup ("within") variation over time can allow for identification of regression coefficients that are free of potential bias. The note demontrates the mathematical principles behind fixed effects modeling and also explains why, in some cases, it may be preferable not to include fixed effects.
This is the sixth in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This note begins by describing the problems that arise when variables are measured with noise. The note progresses to explain how to test for and correct heteroskedasticity. It also explains why it is necessary to adjust standard errors when working with grouped data.
This is the seventh in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This note explains how to choose between log and linear specification. The note emphasizes the economic interpretation of a log model and how to interpret coefficients in a log regression. The note concludes by explaining how to choose between log and linear specifications on econometric grounds, including an explanation of the Box-Cox test.
This is the twelfth in a series of lecture notes which, if tied together into a textbook, might be entitled "Practical Regression." The purpose of the notes is to supplement the theoretical content of most statistics texts with practical advice based on nearly three decades of experience of the author, combined with over one hundred years of experience of colleagues who have offered guidance. As the title "Practical Regression" suggests, these notes are a guide to performing regression in practice. This technical note discusses time-series data. The note explains the concept of a time trend and how to capture the trend using regression. Most of the note is devoted to the problem of autocorrelation. The note concludes by discussing the use of leads and lags as predictor variables.
UrbanBaby is a newly developed smartphone application (app) that allows users to address the difficult task of finding activities, restaurants and other forms of entertainment for newborns to young teens. A number of issues must be addressed if it is going to be profitable. First, the app’s creators, Alex and Pavel, are unsure how to characterize the large potential target market, parents, or if there are other target markets that might be interested. This is critical, as the success of the app depends on the cultivation of a strong online community that will contribute content. Second, they have to find a reliable source of data to populate the app. Third, they must decide whether to focus on Apple's operating system, which is popular in North America, or put more of their energy into competing operating systems that are much more popular in the rest of the world. Finally, they have a number of strategic marketing choices to make and to prioritize, including whether to keep the UrbanBaby brand name and risk the ire of similarly named competitors, how to price the app, how to position and promote the app and how to time the rollout. How these initial choices will affect subsequent strategic and tactical decisions is also a matter of concern.
Capitec Bank was a new bank established at the end of apartheid to offer banking services and loans to the large numbers of low-income potential customers newly opened to economic progress and aspiration by the end of the discriminatory system. The banking context was dominated by four major and long-established banks characterized by conservative legacy practices. Capitec planned to create an innovative offering to serve the low-income market and to migrate this offering into higher income groups. At the same time, the competitive context began to change, as other banks sought to attract lower-income clients as well. The case examines Capitec’s strategic options for survival and expansion in this context.
The chief executive officer of Mission Hills, a Chinese golf course operator, is thinking about how to expand his resort operations into Hainan Island, a few hundred kilometres away. He is wondering what his organization needs, from a human resources standpoint, to be able to develop another five-star resort. Mission Hills is a top golf course brand in China employing 7,000 people in its Shenzhen and Dongguan facilities. The expansion to Hainan Island is part of a larger plan to establish Mission Hills resorts around China.
Rick Anderson, senior director of NextEra's Green Marketing Group, is crafting a marketing strategy to move Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) on the voluntary market by demonstrating the added value of the company's EarthEra RECs. NextEra not only markets RECs, but also funds the construction of renewable energy projects. Anderson is seeking to expand the EarthEra program and brand. While there has been some good responses to EarthEra RECs, there have also been setbacks. Demand for RECs is decreasing. The end of federal incentives for renewable energy projects, the 2008 financial crisis, and a rejection of federal RPS legislation have depressed the market for voluntary RECs. Anderson's challenge is to find the right strategy to expand the EarthEra REC program in the midst of these difficultiesThis case was written by graduate students Jenna Agins, Rajat Bhatia, Andrea Cunningham, Natalie George, Daniel Gonzalez-Kreisberg, and Jonathan Mattson, under the supervision of Professor Andrew Hoffman.
What is the right mix between business-driven and pure research? This case considers the question in the setting of IBM Research India, where a management push for balance between exploratory research and the fulfillment of business needs meets some resistance from employees who were accustomed to so-called pure basic research. The case looks at the Spoken Web project, a good example of use-inspired research for which management has yet to develop a viable business plan.
In 2012, the Ontario provincial government announced that after 41 years in operation, the iconic Toronto tourist attraction Ontario Place would be shut down. The immediate closing would save the province and tax payers an estimated $20 million a year and eliminate at least 48 full-time jobs and 600 summer positions in the process. Ontario Place attendance had dropped sharply from an average of three million visitors during the early 1980's, to just over 327,000 in 2010. The Ontario government planned to keep the park closed until 2017 and spend the five years following closure to redevelop the majority of the site. It established an advisory panel empowered with the task of evaluating how to once again make Ontario Place a popular city venue and tourist destination. The advisory panel was expected to submit a full report outlining the best ideas for the Ontario Place revitalization to the provincial government by the end of the summer.
The executive vice president of sustainability and corporate affairs at Monsanto was facing a difficult situation that could dramatically reshape the firm's business. A decade earlier, the firm had introduced into India, through a joint venture, the first in-the-seed cotton trait biotechnology. This trait protected cotton crops against potentially devastating pests, thereby reducing the need for pesticides and improving yields. Subsequently, three Indian state governments imposed a price ceiling on these biotech seeds. In addition, by 2010, the company was facing competition from over 40 Indian seed companies that offered similar or competing biotechnology cotton seeds. Also, a federal ministry had overruled the recent regulatory approval for a second, indigenously developed biotech crop, brinjal (eggplant). How should a technology innovator such as Monsanto deal with an unpredictable regulatory approval process in an increasingly competitive marketplace? Looking forward, two new in-the-seed trait technologies were being considered for introduction to Indian farmers. Should Monsanto proceed and, if so, how? More generally, what should the firm's long-term approach be in this promising market?
James and Laura Wiggins had some decisions to make. Last year, James’s father had died of a stroke. Death was not instantaneous, however, and the man had lingered in hospital for several weeks in a coma. During this time, no one had been able to access James’s father’s bank accounts (which were registered in the father’s name only). This inability to access the accounts had caused James’s mother considerable economic hardship, which impressed upon James the value of a power of attorney (POA). To that end, James asked his lawyer to prepare a power of attorney for him and Laura. James wanted Laura to sign the documents that night.<br><br>Before signing, Laura had some reservations and a few questions she wanted James to answer. She didn’t understand how a POA worked. Was it the same as a will? She and James didn’t have a will. Would the POA satisfy both needs?
The chairperson of the United Church Housing Corporation (UCHC) of Regina, Saskatchewan, received some information from an external consultant who was hired to assess the state of affairs of the UCHC. This non-profit organization had operated for over 50 years and had built accommodations for many seniors that were both affordable and offered personal independence. In 2005, the UCHC board approved a new four-storey assisted living facility, Wascana Wing, which was to be built in response to long waitlists. With this decision, the UCHC board had taken out a $3 million mortgage to finance the project. Since opening the new facility, UCHC had been plagued by high vacancy rates as new for-profit competitors entered the market for senior accommodations. The combination of high vacancy rates and UCHC's highly leveraged financial position were the source of losses from 2006 to the present. The board's break-even mentality was not working. UCHC was at a major crossroads - the housing situation of more than 100 seniors residing in assisted living apartments and cottages would need to be decided upon at the next meeting. The question was whether or not June, a retired nurse, would recommend that the board proceed with winding up UCHC or make suggestions that would call for major changes to the current business model.
Datavast Inc., a product designer and manufacturer based in China, had just launched its new private cloud storage product, the Data Security Box. The general manager of Datavast was faced with the dilemma of who to sell this product to. He determined that segmenting by size was the most effective method, as customers in different industries and regions did not have very different needs or buying characteristics. However, SMEs (companies with 200-500 computers) and large companies (companies with 1,000+ computers) exhibited vastly different needs and purchasing behaviour. The general manager had limited resources, so he faced the decision of focusing on either SMEs or large companies. Although Datavast did not have any direct competitors at the time, its decision was complicated by the company's current state and capabilities, as well as the data storage industry in China. Also, the general manager was hoping to retire within five years and was unwilling to make additional capital investments in the company. Datavast was operating at a loss and his goal was to bring the company into profitability within the next year. A net loss also meant that the company could not afford to be burdened with large additional expenses. Lastly, private cloud storage was a new technology in China and the market needed to be familiarized with the concept.