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Statutes governing the physical use of land-its development, redevelopment, and conversion of use-shape the parameters within which land markets operate. Using New York City as an example, this note illustrates the importance of understanding zoning laws and processes before engaging in any real estate transaction.

ASEAN CSR Network, a non-government organization based in Singapore, pondered on how it could increase local business interests in sustainable business practices. How should the NGO go about persuading companies to adopt sustainable business practices?

AGL Energy, a long-time traditional energy supply company in Australia, was facing competition as alternative sources of energy, such as solar power and batteries, were taking root both in the marketplace and with energy-conscious homeowners. The trend of homeowners who opted to supply their own energy needs and go off the grid was described as a "death spiral" for utility companies. In response, AGL Energy appointed a new chief executive officer in 2015 to address concerns related to falling demand, customer retention, and unpredictable energy prices. With climate change issues pushing so-called green energy sources into the forefront, what were the strategic options that would ensure AGL Energy's continued presence as a leader in the energy industry?

This negotiation exercise simulates the 2015 negotiation between senior leadership at iQmetrix, a Regina-based point of sale software firm, and Humanity, a San Francisco-based provider of a human resources module that iQmetrix seeks to bundle into its software product. The exercise is unique in that it occurs in a mediated environment where both parties only interact over email. There is no face-to-face interaction, leaving both sides to negotiate an effective agreement while communicating solely through email.

Supplement to case W16482.

This note describes a method for adjusting uncertain future cash flows into a present certain equivalent. The use of net present value (NPV) to adjust a stream of future known cash flows into a single-value equivalent adjusted for the time value of money is common practice. The use of simulation to produce a risk profile of NPV values is also now common. While the expected net present value (ENPV) is often used to convert a risk profile of uncertain NPVs into a single-value equivalent, this approach ignores risk and the decision maker's attitude toward risk. Simply put, a 50% probability of receiving an NPV of $1 million is not as attractive as a 100% chance of receiving an NPV of $500,000. The general logarithmic utility model (GLUM) constructs a single certain equivalent from a risk profile (i.e., a "risk-adjusted NPV") which goes beyond ENPV to incorporate risk aversion into the decision-making criterion. The simplicity and many attractive properties of the GLUM prompt us to suggest it as more attractive than other ways to adjust an NPV risk profile for risk.

The Pelayo family has been studying roulette wheels and collecting data on tens of thousands of spins. Now the Pelayos have identified a wheel that they want to bet on, which has six numbers that have a 1/30 probability of winning instead of 1/37. They have staked EUR1,000 on this wheel. The question is: How much should they bet in order to have the most capital after 200 rounds? Log utility is used to compare alternatives and find an optimal bet.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the voluntary decision of companies to address social and environmental concerns by contributing to a public good, reducing external costs, and increasing fairness or distributional equity. CSR is looked at from an economic point of view, focusing on environmental and natural resource issues with a particular emphasis on water. The term CSR is first clarified and contextualized before being situated in the economics literature. This note studies CSR from an economic angle, and looks at how it is in line with economic incentives. It focuses on: (1) the extent to which there is a need for CSR in terms of the characteristics of the economic environment that make CSR policies effective; and (2) how CSR policies interact with firms' operations and profit maximization. This technical note supports cases in the Darden course elective, "The Global Economics of Water."

In June 2013, redbus.in, a bus ticketing website, was acquired by the Ibibo Group, a subsidiary of South Africa based internet and media firm Naspers Ltd, for USD 135 million. Soon after signing the deal, Phanindra Sama - CEO and co-founder of redBus, went for a holiday to London along with his parents. Sama remained incommunicado during the 10 day trip by not acquiring a local number and not accessing his emails. During Sama's absence, senior management team of Alok Goel and Satish Gidugu at redBus along with three mid-level managers submitted their resignation. Apart from employees of redBus, the Ibibo takeover team was also 'foxed' as desperate calls and emails to Sama elicited no response. This case examines the chaos created due to Sama's absence and helps in understanding the issues when a technology start up is acquired.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 817009.

This case explores Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, starting in January 2014. The case examines how John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, should respond to Icahn's demand that eBay spin off PayPal and accept Icahn's two nominees to the board of directors. Teaching Note includes a.) links to videos which should be assigned to students along with the case and b.) videos only available to the instructor for display during classroom debrief.

This case chronicles the formation and growth of Tiger Airways, a low-cost carrier headquartered in Singapore. It describes the business, managerial and operational challenges faced by Tiger Airways, especially as industry overcapacity became an overriding concern.

In 2015, Arnoud De Meyer, President of Singapore Management University initiated SMU-X. This unique programme made experiential learning accessible to undergraduate students, allowing them to gain exposure to real life work experience that could help improve their critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills. The key strength of the SMU-X initiative was that it had been thought through in great detail and was closely linked to the university's existing pedagogy to create a cohesive learning chain within the university. The pilot phase of the initiative was run for a year, and a lot of the hurdles that had initially seemed difficult to resolve were overcome during this phase. The general feedback from the pilot phase was quite positive and it was observed that this form of learning enhanced the learning value for students, faculty and other industry stakeholders. It was planned to roll out SMU-X across the entire SMU undergraduate cohort in 2016, and De Meyer was considering what would be the most effective mechanism to do so. This case provides the students with an opportunity to reflect on the elements that support the practice of innovation in an organisation, particularly in a service environment. It also enables students to learn about how an urban city university can create an environment for living and learning without the large campus living facilities of suburban universities. Finally, it allows students to visualise the considerations associated with scaling up a project operationally for an organisation-wide rollout.

This case is set in 2010. It is a retrospective case that examines a 1994 policy reform and incentive framework meant to attract private sector investment for power generation in Pakistan. Inadequate power generation and distribution were long-standing development hurdles for the country - and international donors, such as the World Bank, had successfully petitioned the government of Pakistan to privatise their power sector. Privatisation, it was believed, would incentivise the necessary infrastructure investment to overcome the sector's historic challenges. Electrical power generation and distribution in Pakistan was originally provided by private regional utilities. These utilities were then later nationalised under the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) in 1972. Despite this, there were persistent challenges related to the fuel mix and associated energy import costs, limited power generation capacity, and transmission and distribution losses. For WAPDA to be privatised, it would have to first be corporatised and restructured into distinct profit centres with independent management and separate accounts that established a commercial track record. At the same time, investors would be incentivised to fund independent power producers (IPPs) through purchase power agreements (PPA) with the WAPDA in order to finance new capacity. However, there were numerous conflicts of interest between stakeholders themselves. Contemporary public-private partnerships can benefit from Pakistan's 1994 policy reform by understanding what went right, and what went wrong.

eSig, an early-stage startup, offers an electronic signature application as a "freemium" product- i.e., users can upgrade from a free basic version to a premium version by paying a subscription fee. Using 9 months of data from 50,000 user activations, available as a case supplement, students are asked to project the number of new users eSig will acquire in Q1 2016, and recommend how much they should spend during the quarter on each major marketing channel (e.g., Facebook ads, Google ads, content marketing, etc.). Note: the name and functionality of the actual freemium application upon which the case is based have been disguised.

Accenture is a leading global consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. It has clients and its own operations throughout the world. This case describes the human resources and related activities necessary to deliver its services to clients. It allows students to explore how Accenture predicts its staffing needs, identifies the necessary skills, identifies how to recruit staff, when to hire them, in what parts of the world, how to develop, compensate, and motivate them, how to form them into project teams, and manage the process in a cost effective manner. The case also provides a fictional example of an Accenture project. A potential client has issued a request for proposals to deliver a technology project. Students are asked to create a project team with the right mix of people at a cost that is competitive enough to win the project.

The crew on board a Singapore naval patrol vessel was tasked with providing humanitarian aid to Vietnamese boat people and preventing them from reaching Singapore shores. The crew was confronted with a dilemma when it was carrying out its order from headquarters.