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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not a new idea. However, CSR has never been more prominent on the corporate agenda than it is today. Examines the pressure for increased corporate attention to CSR and whether it is warranted and likely to be sustained. Differentiates between the business case for CSR and the normative case and concludes that individual firms must assess the extent to which the general business case for CSR applies to their specific circumstances. For some firms, CSR may be a major influence on corporate strategy.

Most companies believe that successful entry into lower income, emerging markets requires price slashing by subtracting product features. Moreover, companies generally believe that it is appropriate to appeal to potential customers strictly as consumers who want their needs satisfied. Demonstrates that companies can appeal to customers as productive agents who want to build and transform their lives. Offering customers productivity-enhancing systems coupled with culturally appropriate offerings allows companies to charge appropriately and succeed in lower income, emerging markets. Provides examples of such successful competitive differentiation in the global marketplace.

The vast majority of companies today use fixed performance contracts to drive performance improvement. The core elements of this contract are fixed annual targets reinforced by financial incentives. It is the intense pressure placed on meeting these contracts that leads to "gaming the numbers," as managers at every level of the firm fight tooth and nail to meet their targets and earn their bonuses. Not only is this process often stressful, but it can also lead to actions that destroy value for the firm. There are, however, a number of companies that have broken free from reliance on contracts and incentives. They have typically changed their evaluation and rewards processes from fixed to relative measures. Explores the problems of fixed contracts and how alternative rewards programs can be used to avoid gaming and provide managers with more honest numbers.

Sets up a situation in which participants must create presentations that assess the IT risk of a large company.

By 2003, India had been growing at almost 6% annually since 1992, after it suffered a financial collapse, abandoned import substitution, and moved gradually to adopt the Washington Consensus. Now, financial controls and competition barriers are less burdensome, inflation is lower, and the current account is balanced. However, the finance minister faces difficulties with massive fiscal deficits and continuing disturbances with Pakistan that seem to deter foreign direct investment (FDI). The question facing him is whether India can reduce these deficits (in the face of a 2004 election) or whether to let them slide, hoping that India's entrepreneurs and high-tech southern states will carry the day.

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases.

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases.

The president of Ford Argentina has to decide on the e-business approach at this subsidiary of Ford Motor Co. The approach must take into consideration the ambitious global e-business transformation proposed by the parent company within the context of a major economic crisis suffered in Argentina.

In-N-Out Burger is a fast-food chain with 171 company-owned locations in three states--California, Nevada, and Arizona. It has an extremely hardcore customer base and the company appears to be in good financial health. The primary issue in this case concerns expansion: how quickly should the company expand and should that growth occur regionally or nationally? A secondary issue involves the question of brand stewardship, namely, who is in the best position to steward the brand as it continues to grow over the next decade?

Habitat for Humanity underwent a brand valuation study and found that its brand was worth $1.8 billion, equivalent to Starbucks. Senior management reviews the issues facing the organization; students are afforded insights into what drives brand value for a major nonprofit and what is critical for building and protecting brand value.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 703-050.

From March to May 2003, Hong Kong's tourism industry underwent a serious downturn during the outbreak of SARS in the territory, which caused 1,755 cases in Hong Kong before July. There was practically no inbound tourism between April 2 and May 23, during which the World Health Organization advised the public to consider postponing all but essential travel to Hong Kong. Then, in a dramatic twist, the industry received a significant boost in late July, when residents of four nearby mainland Chinese cities were allowed to apply to visit Hong Kong on an individual basis as part of the mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement. Formerly, mainland Chinese tourists could visit Hong Kong only with tour groups. By September, tourists from the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen could also visit Hong Kong on an individual basis. Mainland tourists literally began to flood in as a result, bringing up total visitor arrival figures to a level that even surpassed pre-SARS statistics. Greater easing of travel restrictions was expected in the first half of 2004. How could Hong Kong's SMEs, much battered by the economic woes in recent years that were capped by the SARS attack, capitalize on the new opportunities offered by the liberalization of mainland travel?

The sauce company Lee Kum Kee, one of the best known Hong Kong brands, had a long history that began in 1888 and was run by the same family for four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster sauce manufacturer in Guangdong Province, China. It relocated to Macau in the early 1900s and moved once more to Hong Kong after World War II; it remained based there in the decades afterwards. Lee Kum Kee was already expanding beyond the Guangdong-Macau-Hong Kong distribution network in the 1920s to North America, when it was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, after the torch passed to third-generation leader Lee Man Tat, there was rapid geographical market and product diversification. Lee Man Tat's sons, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from their father in the 1990s, and the pace of modernization and diversification continued while the company's marketing strategy remained vigorous and adaptable. The company overcame a consumer confidence crisis--called the 3-MPCD crisis--in the late 1990s and early 2000s and continued to thrive. By early 2003, Lee Kum Kee had already developed more than 200 sauces. Its distribution network covered 60 countries in five continents, and its products were available in more than 80 countries. What lessons about strategic brand management can we learn from the way Lee Kum Kee developed, maintained, and expanded the reach of its products over a whole century? What lessons about crisis management does the company's handling of the 3-MPCD crisis offer?

Supplements the (A) case.

The Pasteur Institut is implementing a proactive commercialization strategy under the direction of Christian Policard. Highlights the government's innovation policy and the role that the Pasteur Institut can play in shaping it. Also addresses issues relating to higher education and life-sciences research in France.

Supplements the (A) case.

In the fall of 1998, Dan Frye, member of IBM's emerging technologies and business team, is trying to decide whether to forge a strategic alliance with the Linux Development Community (LDC). Just two years earlier, IBM had its first exposure to an "open source" software program when it selected Apache as the web server program for the web site of the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Based on its success with Apache, and Frye's intuition that Linux could be a critical, strategic step in the new "network-centric" computing environment, Frye and his colleagues are trying to decide whether an alliance between IBM and LDC would serve their interests--and, if so, how IBM could manage the alliance with a loosely affiliated group of software developers.

This technical note describes many of the issues, techniques and resources available in the field of shelf space management in the early 2000s. It assumes basic familiarity with category management and merchandising techniques.

Orion Bus Industries is a manufacturer of transit buses that are purchased by transit authorities across North America. The majority of Orion's sales are made through competitive bidding processes. The company's goal is to either increase margins while maintaining sales levels or to increase the total volume of sales. The chief executive officer would like to know whether historical contract bidding data can be used to improve the success of future bids for bus contracts.

Jonathon Elderslie, recently retired after running his own company for 30 years, must decide what questions he should ask before deciding whether to join the board of directors of a publicly traded company. While flattered by the invitation, he has some concerns given the current climate of concern about corporate governance and, more specifically, the views about the role of a director expressed by one of his business acquaintances.