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Julia Miller was the lead project coordinator for Construct Water Company on a water line construction project in Bakersfield, California. Miller had been recently been promoted when her new boss came to her hotel room for a meeting, but kissed her without her consent. Over the next few months, Miller faced more conflict and had to make an increasingly complicated decision about what to do next, including whether to report the original misconduct. Miller repeatedly chose not to report the incident because she worried about a negative reaction from the company's human resources office and potential retaliation from her mostly male superiors. She decided instead to follow the advice of a co-worker to avoid conflict. Miller was constantly trying to figure out what she should do, and wondered why the organizational environment had made these decisions so difficult for female employees like her.

Case Supplement for Case W27066

Case Supplement for Case W27066

Immigration is a powerful force shaping a country's population, and a nation's immigration policy often reveals who is welcome and who is not. "US Migration in Four Acts" offers an overview of migration to the United States and focuses especially on two major laws that have defined US migration policy. First, the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act became law toward the end of the mass migration that began in the 19th century. It imposed different immigration quotas for individual countries, restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and, in effect, excluded it from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Second, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which has in essence remained unchanged, sought to impose a global cap on immigration and more uniform maximum quotas for individual countries. The case puts migration policies in the historical context of evolving US society, welfare policies, and race relations. It also offers theoretical approaches and models of immigration to assess those policies. At the Darden School of Business, this case is taught in the last module of the elective course on globalization, Managing International Trade and Investment.

In March 2022, the Swatch Group launched the MoonSwatch, born out of a secret in-house collaboration among its street Swatch and its luxury Omega brand, in tribute to one of Omega's most legendary watches. The launch created a frenzy among watch fans worldwide, with huge lines forming outside of the select Swatch stores selling the product and with social media channels lighting up. The case discusses some of the initial reactions to the hyped Omega X Swatch product launch, which represented a break with the distinctive brand positioning strategy that the group had been known for so far.

At the start of 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposed a ban on noncompete clauses that would prohibit companies from including them new employment contracts and rescind existing agreements. In an interview with MIT Sloan Management Review, University of Maryland associate professor of management Evan Starr, who studies noncompete agreements, discusses why the FTC wants to ban noncompetes and what such a ban could mean for companies and employees.

R&D staff members often proactively pursue unofficial innovation projects, driven by the desire to effect internal change, meet a personal need, or explore a passion. Many of these innovations remain invisible but could offer broader benefits to the organization. Improving processes for bottom-up innovation can help companies take full advantage of this phenomenon.

This case is designed to discuss the tradeoffs between independent venture capital (IVC) and corporate venture capital (CVC). Students also have the opportunity to analyze two startup investment opportunities based on Nine Realms' criteria. The case concludes with a discussion about a strategic choice faced by Nine Realms: should it continue as an IVC, list on the stock market or shift to a CVC? This allows students to debate the tradeoffs between the two approaches for the individuals involved.

Provides a history of the LPGA and examines the gender pay gap in professional sports. Discusses the opportunities and challenges the LPGA currently faces.

The Italy-based Moleskine Foundation worked with young adults in Africa and Europe to inspire social change through art and creative projects. Adama Sanneh, the newly appointed CEO of the Moleskine Foundation, faced several challenges: First, he had to make his own mark on an organization that had been shaped by several well-respected Foundation founders and advisors who still remained active on the board. Second, he had to manage the relationship between the Foundation and the Moleskine Company, the Foundation's largest funder. Third, Sanneh had made news as Italy's only Black CEO, but he did not want race to become his defining attribute. Finally, he needed to determine how ambitious he could be with the Foundation's strategy. He and his team held the belief that creativity - a longstanding element of the Moleskine Company identity - could also be a source of social change around the world. Developing a realistic strategy to achieve this goal would be no easy task, and would require support from multiple internal and external stakeholders. The case highlights how individuals manage their identity and set a new strategy when stepping into new leadership roles. In addition, it sheds light on the unique governance challenges that can arise for a corporate foundation associated with a separate for-profit enterprise.

In July, 2019, Springhill Medical Center ("SMC") in Mobile, Alabama fell prey to a malicious ransomware attack that crippled the hospital's internal network systems and public-facing web page. While the hospital rushed to securely restore the network, medical personnel scrambled workarounds to continue medical services. Amidst the chaos, a baby was born in the hospital with umbilical cord wrapped around her neck that had resulted in severe brain injury and died nine months later. The mother and family sued SMC, alleging the hospital failed to inform her of the cyber incident, which she believed had compromised the quality of care and led to an otherwise preventable tragedy. The case discusses the important questions of how SMC had responded to the ransomware attack and how hospitals and other organizations should treat the ever-increasing threat of cyber breaches.

In February 2022, the chief executive officer of Defeat Duchenne Canada was eager to scale up the operations of his charitable organization, from its local origins in London, Ontario to a national and impactful venture. The management team had to find the best way to develop awareness of Duchenne muscular dystrophy to secure much-needed funding for research and improve access to treatment for the rare disease. Despite facing multiple resource constraints, including a name and branding change from Jesse's Journey to Defeat Duchenne Canada, the team had to focus its efforts on generating the greatest impact.

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use "co-experience platform", allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work, play, learn, and purchase virtual and real goods. Brands saw Roblox as a major metaverse testing ground and experimented by offering a variety of branded items and experiences. In 2022, Roblox was grappling with how to maintain revenue growth and generate profits, considering two key decisions. First, how should Roblox expand its partnerships with brands, and should Roblox allow brands to offer immersive advertising within experiences? Roblox would have to tread carefully to not raise the ire of watchdog groups who were wary of advertising targeted at children. Second, should Roblox change its economic model which was free to publish, and adopt a "scarcity economy" whereby Roblox would allow creators to only publish items in limited quantities and charge an upfront fee for item creation, similar to a manufacturing fee? On one hand, scarcity could prevent excess supply from driving down prices, but culturally Roblox users and developers were accustomed to unlimited supply, low prices, and virtually no upfront fees.

Smart products like robotic vacuums and smart speakers have become common in many households. However, although consumers value the convenience and time savings smart products offer, the accompanying feeling that they've relinquished some control to a machine is inhibiting the products' broader adoption and customer satisfaction. Based on their research, the authors recommend ways that smart-product companies can increase consumers' sense of control and autonomy when using smart technology.

Lumière Project, a Hong Kong-based company, uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to offer finance solutions to the filmmaking industry. Founded by Patrice Poujol, Lumière relies on Elemis, its ERP platform prototype using blockchain technology, to help finance media projects and increase capital flow transparency and control for movie investors, cast, and crews. With the initial success of its B2B business and from the end of 2020, Lumière has designed and started developing NFT and Lumiverse solutions in the hope of opening the gates to the wider B2C arena for film financing, production, and distribution. But developing B2C business is considered as a bold move for Poujol and his team. To make the expansion into B2C a success, they need to raise additional capital and cope with a range of technical, regulatory, and market risks and challenges. This case describes B2B and B2C use cases of blockchain technologies and smart contracts in the filmmaking industry. By illustrating how Lumière works, this case shows how blockchain technologies and smart contracts improve transparency and accountability in the film payment process, bringing digital transformation in to the filmmaking industry. It provides a good opportunity for students to assess the benefits and challenges of using blockchain and smart technologies. Students will also learn not only how NFTs can create business value but also how to cope with the challenges associated with the use of NFTs, such as legal and regulatory concerns, the valuation difficulties and the efforts to attract the interest of the target audience. Moreover, this case provides an opportunity for students to learn different ways that start-ups can raise capital to run businesses. Besides traditional funding options, Lumière provides an opportunity to consider tokenization-related alternatives. Students can compare pros and cons of each funding option based on a real-world case. After studying this case, students will

In January 2019, a project manager at VCayr, a social service organization, reported to a board director, Adam Johnson, that another board director at VCayr sexually harassed her. Johnson was aware of the severity of sexual harassment and the significant harm it could have on all VCayr members and the overall organization. He had to decide how to manage the situation.

Alexion Pharmaceutical Inc. (Alexion), founded in 1992, was a biotechnology company that focused on therapeutics for rare diseases. As the company grew, it sought to scale operations to serve a growing number of patients and their families worldwide. The search began for an innovative, forward-thinking, strategic information technology leader to spearhead the effort. In 2015, George Llado was hired as senior vice-president and chief information officer. Llado realized that big data and analytics could play a unique transformational role in identifying customers to accelerate sales growth and realize the mission to save lives. He wondered if analytics enabled through cloud computing, a new kind of data platform, and betting on technology start-ups could accelerate patient identification. When he joined Alexion, Llado faced a unique set of related challenges, including (a) applying analytics in a highly regulated industry, (b) rapidly creating a new type of integrated data platform, (c) managing dysfunctional vendor relationships, and (d) balancing the role of data and analytics in relation to the traditional sales force approach in pharmaceutical firms.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W24460

In July 2022, Celsius Network (Celsius), a cryptocurrency (crypto) network, filed for bankruptcy. Celsius was a "crypto bank" but often acted as a hedge fund. It was taking deposits in cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), promising a sizeable yield to the depositors and then lending these out to institutional investors, or more aggressively to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols which were promising an even higher yield (but with a higher risk, of course). The case examines the DeFi ecosystem, its key players, and discusses key building blocks such as stablecoins and their role in it. The case can be taught in a course on financial institutions, capital markets, or fintech.