During the spring 2020 semester, Botsworth Business School had suddenly moved all classes to remote teaching due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school’s associate dean had to consider the implications of this new learning environment for academic integrity. She also had to manage the challenges of a new infrastructure and differing student and instructor needs. In May 2020, with urgency subsiding, and with the university confirming that classes would be taught remotely through the spring 2021 semester, the associate dean was considering the risks and benefits of what services had been—and what could be—implemented to support remote teaching and learning. Leading up to the remote fall 2020 semester, she was wondering how to best identify and manage risk from contract cheating—a form of academic dishonesty that occurred when a student submitted work for academic credit that was completed by a third party. The associate dean’s task would have been complex and difficult in normal times, but it had become an especially salient problem after moving to online remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ethos - Spirit of the Community (Ethos), a sustainable tourism company in Sa Pa, Vietnam, existed to support a wide variety of environmental and social initiatives that benefited members of local, ethnic minority groups. In early 2019, the organization’s founders were working with 22 female tour guides and 260 ethnic minority host families to offer sustainable and socially responsible treks in the region. However, their ability to continue was in jeopardy due to changing regulations that would affect the working status of the company’s local trekking guides. Addressing this change was essential because the business depended on the local women who led Ethos tour groups, and the new requirement could mean Ethos’s underlying business model could fall apart, undermining its ability to support related environmental and social initiatives. How could the founders ensure that Ethos would survive as a long-term venture that was able to make a difference in the lives of the local people while also accomplishing their own long-term goals?

Serum Institute of India (SII) was the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines and had signed an agreement to produce the Oxford vaccine, a top five candidate. The chief executive officer, Adar Poonawala, had announced in late July 2020 that the government of India had agreed to buy two doses of the vaccine, at a price of US$13 per dose. In early August, two developments caused Adar to revisit SII's initial pricing decision. The first development was that Russia had announced it had developed a vaccine that was ready for mass distribution in early October—two months ahead of SII. The second development was that Johnson & Johnson had announced a price of US$10 per dose. The case outlines the decisions facing SII concerning the pricing strategy and pricing dynamics for their COVID-19 vaccine.

The owners of a chain of hardware stores are preparing the most recent quarter financial statements. A number of business details are provided, including information to assess accrual accounting net income: sales, cost of sales, operating expenses, interest, depreciation, and taxes. The most recent balance sheet is provided, enabling an assessment of basic accruals (e.g., tax payable). This case may be used as a stand-alone exercise to illustrate the preparation of balance sheets and income statements using transactions and accruals.

This interactive exercise emulates a process wherein a virtual Card is created in a series of steps. It can be used to expose students to ideas and concepts in process analysis, management, and improvement. It may be used in classes focusing on operations management, project management, and software development. The simulation is run on the project-management web application Trello. It allows for simultaneous, real-time observation and collaboration between players. Students can observe other students working at the same time they are performing specific tasks. This exercise is suitable for students in either full-time or executive MBA programs, as well as executive education programs.

The owner of a small retail flooring company is projecting her company's financial performance and financial position for the current 2020 calendar year. The company began business in 2019, and by all measures, that first year had been a financial success. A small profit was earned, and the year ended in a strong financial position. But disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the need for new planning. A number of changes to business activity are projected, together enabling the construction of pro forma 2020 financial statements. Liquidity, profit, and the ability to take an annual owner's draw could then be assessed. This case is optimally used early in an introductory financial accounting course, or as a stand-alone exercise that illustrates the construction of financial statements. It can also be used as two distinct accounting analyses: (i) students can use the case data to reconstruct the 2019 balance sheet and income statement provided within the case exhibits, and (ii) they can also use the new projections to complete the 2020 pro forma financial statements.

Ethos - Spirit of the Community (Ethos), a sustainable tourism company in Sa Pa, Vietnam, existed to support a wide variety of environmental and social initiatives that benefited members of local, ethnic minority groups. In early 2019, the organization's founders were working with 22 female tour guides and 260 ethnic minority host families to offer sustainable and socially responsible treks in the region. However, their ability to continue was in jeopardy due to changing regulations that would affect the working status of the company's local trekking guides. Addressing this change was essential because the business depended on the local women who led Ethos tour groups, and the new requirement could mean Ethos's underlying business model could fall apart, undermining its ability to support related environmental and social initiatives. How could the founders ensure that Ethos would survive as a long-term venture that was able to make a difference in the lives of the local people while also accomplishing their own long-term goals?

During the spring 2020 semester, Botsworth Business School had suddenly moved all classes to remote teaching due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school's associate dean had to consider the implications of this new learning environment for academic integrity. She also had to manage the challenges of a new infrastructure and differing student and instructor needs. In May 2020, with urgency subsiding, and with the university confirming that classes would be taught remotely through the spring 2021 semester, the associate dean was considering the risks and benefits of what services had been-and what could be-implemented to support remote teaching and learning. Leading up to the remote fall 2020 semester, she was wondering how to best identify and manage risk from contract cheating-a form of academic dishonesty that occurred when a student submitted work for academic credit that was completed by a third party. The associate dean's task would have been complex and difficult in normal times, but it had become an especially salient problem after moving to online remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With an increasing number of women joining the workforce in India, the women's office-wear segment was gaining traction in the clothing industry and a number of start-ups had recently appeared in the country. Ayushi Gudwani founded FableStreet (FS), a premium office-wear brand, when she found it difficult to find office-wear that fit her well. She found this to be a major pain point for many professional Indian women and decided to solve the problem. After extensive research, Gudwani developed a sizing guide unique to Indian women's body types and an algorithm that drove the development of FS's well-fitting quality clothing for professional women. In December 2019, FS raised US$2.95 million in a Series A round to fund its expansion. Now Gudwani has to choose the company's next course of action by evaluating various growth options and choosing whether to build an offline presence, add accessory items as a new product category, or expand internationally.

Serum Institute of India (SII) was the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines and had signed an agreement to produce the Oxford vaccine, a top five candidate. The chief executive officer, Adar Poonawala, had announced in late July 2020 that the government of India had agreed to buy two doses of the vaccine, at a price of US$13 per dose. In early August, two developments caused Adar to revisit SII's initial pricing decision. The first development was that Russia had announced it had developed a vaccine that was ready for mass distribution in early October-two months ahead of SII. The second development was that Johnson & Johnson had announced a price of US$10 per dose. The case outlines the decisions facing SII concerning the pricing strategy and pricing dynamics for their COVID-19 vaccine.

The online eco-lifestyle start-up The Kommon Goods, founded by Alvin Li, a young Hong Kong social consultant and entrepreneur, seeks to change consumer behaviour through its sustainably sourced products platform. The social enterprise also aims to drive change in the B2B space, while also raising awareness about the growing issue of plastic waste in Hong Kong and globally. The Kommon Goods is an extension of Li's own lifestyle and philosophy. The social enterprise encourages consumers to avoid buying plastic items or packaging and to focus on purchase items that are produced sustainably and recyclable. The social entrepreneur has already gained worldwide recognition in his quest to support the UN's SDGs and reduce plastic waste worldwide.

After discovering that their cancer diagnostic tool, designed to leverage the cloud computing power of IBM Watson, needed greater integration into the clinical processes at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the development team had difficult choices to make. The Oncology Expert Advisor tool used a combination of machine learning and the latest cancer care research to make recommendations to clinicians in the field. Was automated cancer diagnosis the future of cancer care? The development team, comprised of clinicians and data scientists, reviewed the results of their experiment to augment their implementation plan and better evaluate the efficacy of the analytics tool.

Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the experiments they ran, and what they learned. Via (c) explores the strategic choices they face about product and service offerings once they determine which market(s) to target.

Via (a) captures the early days of the data analytics startup as founders Gounden and Ravanis considered which markets offer the right opportunities for their firm and what kinds of experiments will help them narrow their choice. Supplement Via (b) reveals the experiments they ran, and what they learned. Via (c) explores the strategic choices they face about product and service offerings once they determine which market(s) to target.

In late 2020, an instructor at a Canadian university received an email from a concerned student about contract cheating (i.e., a student submitting someone else's work for credit) in her class. As the instructor read the email, many questions without obvious answers came to mind. She wondered what her professional and personal responsibilities were in dealing with the issues raised in the student's email. In particular, she was trying to come to grips with her responsibilities to her students, her colleagues, the program she taught in, and the university and society in general. She also wondered what she could do to make this type of cheating less prevalent and how she could better detect and discourage it. How could she and her colleagues support students to prevent them from seeking help from these types of companies, which promoted cheating under the premise of tutoring? Upon further considering the issues, the instructor wondered about potential risks to herself, her students, and the university that might result from various possible courses of action. She decided that, at the very least, she would talk to her students about contract cheating at the start of her next class, but she was not sure what she would say.

In May 2020, Benjamin Chua, the founder of Spic & Span, a cleaning company with a stated social mission to employ marginalized Singaporeans, was reviewing the company's strategic goals. Since its founding in 2017, the start-up had become an award-winning company, and with the introduction of its new cleaning technology, Speco, in September 2019, new job opportunities had been brought to the table for cleaners and management staff alike. The company's workforce had effectively doubled in size in less than a year. Spic & Span was expanding its services from condominiums and offices to schools, restaurants, hotels, transportations, hospitals, and homes. While the new technology had opened up new job opportunities for marginalized Singaporeans, it had also increased the level of job complexity. As a consequence, the turnover rate of newly employed staff had increased. Why were the cleaners not motivated by the new job opportunities? How could Chua motivate cleaners to stay with the company?

In late 2020, an instructor at a Canadian university received an email from a concerned student about contract cheating (i.e., a student submitting someone else’s work for credit) in her class. As the instructor read the email, many questions without obvious answers came to mind. She wondered what her professional and personal responsibilities were in dealing with the issues raised in the student’s email. In particular, she was trying to come to grips with her responsibilities to her students, her colleagues, the program she taught in, and the university and society in general. She also wondered what she could do to make this type of cheating less prevalent and how she could better detect and discourage it. How could she and her colleagues support students to prevent them from seeking help from these types of companies, which promoted cheating under the premise of tutoring? Upon further considering the issues, the instructor wondered about potential risks to herself, her students, and the university that might result from various possible courses of action. She decided that, at the very least, she would talk to her students about contract cheating at the start of her next class, but she was not sure what she would say.