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Supplement for Case E727A.

Supplement for Case E727A.

Supplement for Case E727A.

The diffusion of digital technologies has enabled a notable transformation in the firms' boundaries, processes, structures, roles, and interactions. It is now clear that digital transformation is not just a traditional IT back-end process; rather it affects the organization as a whole, redefining strategies, entrepreneurial processes, innovation, and governance mechanisms. This permeation has led to the emergence of new ways of organizing firms' value chains and interfirm relationships, which now increasingly occur in digital ecosystems and marketplaces. The scope of transformation as well as the modalities of value co-generation and delivery are here used to introduce the content of this Special Issue of California Management Review on Digital Transformation.

In February 2020, the board of directors of the French energy utility company, Engie SA (Engie), terminated the services of the company's chief executive officer (CEO). Before her departure, this CEO was the only female CEO among the Cotation Assistée en Continu (CAC) 40 benchmark stock market index of firms. After becoming CEO in May 2016, she divested billions of dollars' worth of fossil-fuel assets and reinvested the proceeds in renewable and energy efficiency services. Her goal was to restructure the loss-making energy company, but the board of directors was not satisfied with her performance. Despite an improvement in the company's financial performance during her tenure, Engie remained one of the lowest-valued energy utility companies on European stock exchanges. With a focus on renewable energy, Engie's relative performance continued to suffer. The chair of the company's board of directors had to determine the cause of the company's stock market performance and find ways to improve. He also had to consider what other factors, in addition to value creation for shareholders, should be used as a performance measure for the next CEO.

The release of Tesla Inc. (Tesla)'s financial results in early 2019 made it clear that significant challenges lay ahead for the firm. While Tesla remained the market leader for electric vehicles in the global automobile industry, sales had dropped dramatically, and Tesla was once again losing money. Its recent launch of the Model 3 held great promise and added a key vehicle to its growing product portfolio, but customer complaints about late delivery were on the rise. As a leader of electric vehicles in the global automobile industry, which capabilities are most important for Tesla to further develop, and how broadly should the firm stretch its supply chain and service network? Were changes to the firm's strategy required in order to advance its mission to accelerate the world's transition to clean energy?

Founded in 2012, Skillz offered a platform for mobile app developers to monetize skill-based games via prized tournaments. Skillz had over 20,000 registered developers that had created thousands of Skillz-powered games played by over 30 million registered users (gamers). A successful gamer could make hundreds of thousands of dollars playing competitive games of skill. The company had a gross marketplace volume of almost $1 billion in 2019 and over 250 employees primarily in San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon. CEO Andrew Paradise challenged his leadership team to explore options for accelerating growth.

In January 2012, the government of India faced significant challenges to achieving three key objectives of high growth, inclusive development, and improved governance. The economy was experiencing a growth slowdown, persistently high inflation, and infrastructure and energy deficits. Policy reforms were hampered by several recent corruption scandals, widespread citizen protests against corruption, and disagreements with coalition partners. Could India make the right decisions needed to lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty?

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming "third places" for customers to gather away from their homes or offices, most of Luckin's stores were small and bare, reflecting its mission to provide convenient takeout or delivery coffee to busy customers. With its app-based ordering, cashierless stores, and "smart," cloud-connected kitchen equipment, Luckin positioned itself as a technology company, rather than just a coffee shop, and attracted a number of big-name investors.<br/> However, Luckin used deep discounts on its products to attract new customers, and as of 2019, it had yet to be profitable on a company level. The case asks whether Luckin's business model could be sustainable, even in the absence of these promotional prices, and whether Luckin's focus on takeout and delivery (soon to be expanded through a network of vending machines and express coffee machines) was enough to differentiate it from competitors.

This case describes revelations of fraud at Luckin Coffee, beginning with an anonymous report in January 2020 and continuing with the company's admission in April 2020 that it had inflated its revenues by 2.2 billion RMB ($310 million), almost half its reported revenue, in the last three quarters of 2019. It was later found that Luckin had arranged false transactions at many of its stores, and that it had sold tens of millions of cups of coffee (through coffee vouchers) to corporate customers with ties to Luckin chairman Charles Lu. It had also falsified supplier payments, creating a loop of fraudulent transactions that inflated both its sales and expenses.

This case uses the experience of a professor at a prominent business school who is involved in a grade dispute with a number of students as an opportunity to introduce core business ethics concepts. After receiving low grades in a course, a number of students appeal their grades. Unbeknownst to the professor, the students' appeals are processed and their grades are adjusted without the professor being given an opportunity to defend her rationale for the original grades. Unhappy with the result, she unsuccessfully raises this issue internally both within her business school as well as with her parent university. Eventually, the professor even considers pursuing a legal remedy. Through the case, core ethical principles related to fairness, justice, and process can be explored by looking at the scenario from the students', instructor's, and the university's perspective. Additionally, there is an opportunity to reflect on what the professor should do next. Should she continue to speak-up and act based on her principles? This is an ideal case to use at the beginning of a semester because the university context will be familiar to all participants. Through the case, foundational ethical concepts can be introduced that will set the stage for the remainder of any course that contains an ethics component.

Organizations may soon start monitoring employees whereabouts and behavior more closely than ever, using surveillance tools such as apps, sensors, and algorithms that scrape and analyze the data people produce as they work. With the help of artificial intelligence, this data can be translated into real-time diagnostics that gauge people's health and risk levels. That may sound creepy, but there are ethical ways to use AI to promote safety on the job.

This four-part case series examines the numerous, often subtle ways in which international and interpersonal relations intersect. When an American MBA student types a controversial comment about China into the virtual chat box of an online class on emerging economies, he ignites a firestorm. Many Chinese students see the comment as racist; many American students see it as an example of free speech. From the Chinese students' perspective, the comment is one more in a long series of hurtful anti-Chinese statements made in the era of the US-China trade war, COVID-19, and a hostile US government. From the American students' perspective, the comment is little more than an isolated, passing incident-insensitive, perhaps, but hardly inflammatory. What actions-if any-should be taken in the comment's aftermath? Should the author of the comment be reprimanded? Should the Chinese students let go of their grievances? What can the class's professor do to mitigate the fallout from the comment and prevent future such problems from occurring? How should the dean and administration respond to the incident, and how can they assuage the hurt feelings of Chinese students and alumni? Taking the perspectives of a Chinese student; the Chinese-American professor in whose class the comment was made; and the dean of the business school, the four cases expose the complex web of stakeholders, motivations, cultural norms, diverse perceptions, and geopolitics present in today's international classrooms and work settings.

This four-part case series examines the numerous, often subtle ways in which international and interpersonal relations intersect. When an American MBA student types a controversial comment about China into the virtual chat box of an online class on emerging economies, he ignites a firestorm. Many Chinese students see the comment as racist; many American students see it as an example of free speech. From the Chinese students' perspective, the comment is one more in a long series of hurtful anti-Chinese statements made in the era of the US-China trade war, COVID-19, and a hostile US government. From the American students' perspective, the comment is little more than an isolated, passing incident-insensitive, perhaps, but hardly inflammatory. What actions-if any-should be taken in the comment's aftermath? Should the author of the comment be reprimanded? Should the Chinese students let go of their grievances? What can the class's professor do to mitigate the fallout from the comment and prevent future such problems from occurring? How should the dean and administration respond to the incident, and how can they assuage the hurt feelings of Chinese students and alumni? Taking the perspectives of a Chinese student; the Chinese-American professor in whose class the comment was made; and the dean of the business school, the four cases expose the complex web of stakeholders, motivations, cultural norms, diverse perceptions, and geopolitics present in today's international classrooms and work settings.

This four-part case series examines the numerous, often subtle ways in which international and interpersonal relations intersect. When an American MBA student types a controversial comment about China into the virtual chat box of an online class on emerging economies, he ignites a firestorm. Many Chinese students see the comment as racist; many American students see it as an example of free speech. From the Chinese students' perspective, the comment is one more in a long series of hurtful anti-Chinese statements made in the era of the US-China trade war, COVID-19, and a hostile US government. From the American students' perspective, the comment is little more than an isolated, passing incident-insensitive, perhaps, but hardly inflammatory. What actions-if any-should be taken in the comment's aftermath? Should the author of the comment be reprimanded? Should the Chinese students let go of their grievances? What can the class's professor do to mitigate the fallout from the comment and prevent future such problems from occurring? How should the dean and administration respond to the incident, and how can they assuage the hurt feelings of Chinese students and alumni? Taking the perspectives of a Chinese student; the Chinese-American professor in whose class the comment was made; and the dean of the business school, the four cases expose the complex web of stakeholders, motivations, cultural norms, diverse perceptions, and geopolitics present in today's international classrooms and work settings.

This four-part case series examines the numerous, often subtle ways in which international and interpersonal relations intersect. When an American MBA student types a controversial comment about China into the virtual chat box of an online class on emerging economies, he ignites a firestorm. Many Chinese students see the comment as racist; many American students see it as an example of free speech. From the Chinese students' perspective, the comment is one more in a long series of hurtful anti-Chinese statements made in the era of the US-China trade war, COVID-19, and a hostile US government. From the American students' perspective, the comment is little more than an isolated, passing incident-insensitive, perhaps, but hardly inflammatory. What actions-if any-should be taken in the comment's aftermath? Should the author of the comment be reprimanded? Should the Chinese students let go of their grievances? What can the class's professor do to mitigate the fallout from the comment and prevent future such problems from occurring? How should the dean and administration respond to the incident, and how can they assuage the hurt feelings of Chinese students and alumni? Taking the perspectives of a Chinese student; the Chinese-American professor in whose class the comment was made; and the dean of the business school, the four cases expose the complex web of stakeholders, motivations, cultural norms, diverse perceptions, and geopolitics present in today's international classrooms and work settings.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a performing arts non-profit organization founded in 1996. It has a strong and presumably loyal following for its annual outdoor production of Shakespeare, called Free Shakespeare on the Common. However, it has limited data to prove this and to cross-promote its other for-fee services. The data it has is held in various databases. Further its analytics and marketing resources are limited. Meanwhile, pressure on the live performing arts industry continues to mount as digital entertainment options grow. Recognizing the disruption that is underway, CSC begins to explore virtual reality's potential and influence on the performing arts. In 2017, while consulting for a team at Google, CSC's founder and a team at Google determined it would be valuable for all parties to produce and release a virtual reality version of Hamlet. With the support of Google and a few major donors, the Hamlet 360: Thy Father's Spirit project was released in January 2019. The case centers on CSC's struggle to meet immediate responsibilities while exploring new digital models and their potential value to and influence on the performing arts. The case is designed for classroom discussion but is also well-suited to student projects related to digital transformation, mobile app design, and more.

Established in 1959, the Virginia Journal of International Law (VJIL) was a student-edited law review at the University of Virginia School of Law. It was among the world's most influential international law journals, and pieces published in the journal had been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States and the International Court of Justice, among many other highly prestigious courts. Despite this, it faced numerous operational challenges, including long publication lead times, missed publication dates, and financial uncertainty. The case allows students to practice problem solving through the A3 thinking process. Supplemental videos discuss aspects of the case in detail and support case discussion.

This case, a follow-up to "The Virginia Journal of International Law (A)" (UVA-OM-1640) continues the story of the Virginia Journal of International Law (VJIL), a student-edited law review at the University of Virginia School of Law. It reveals the work the publication team put in to understand the root causes of its problems and implement countermeasures to standardize and sustain improvement. Supplemental videos discuss aspects of the case in detail and support case discussion.

Denitsa Ikonomova is a champion professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars (France) who has become a desired social media influencer. She must now consider the business side of her profession and decide how to leverage her celebrity.