Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price

In 2017, Ivey Publishing, a publisher and distributor of cases for the academic market, struggled with widespread copyright infringement, which affected its revenue stream. The digital revolution, which had an impact on so many other creative industries, including music, film, and computer software, had also affected the publisher.<br><br>Ivey Publishing’s sales team leader made a call to a business professor to elicit his support in encouraging his students to purchase cases from Ivey Publishing (rather than copying them from other students). Having failed to persuade this professor and others, the sales team leader reflected on what else she could do to strengthen Ivey Publishing’s financial performance.

This case can be used at either the undergraduate or the graduate level. It has been written to support three different analytical approaches—ethics, value capture, and power/persuasion. It can be used in a variety of different courses, including business ethics (or courses that include a module on business ethics), strategic management (in a module on value creation and value capture), and organizational behaviour (in a module on power and persuasion). In addition, the multi-faceted approaches represented in the case make it particularly suitable for a capstone course that requires students to integrate a number of different perspectives.<br><br> After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to<ul><li>identify and prioritize strategically significant shifts in a business’s operating environment;</li><li>approach business challenges from an ethical perspective that incorporates both the interests of the business and those of other stakeholders;</li><li>explain and apply the value-price-cost framework; and</li><li>debate the use of different power tactics to influence the behaviour of others.</li></ul>

• ethics, value capture, power, persuasion, value, price, cost framework, copyright, publishing, property rights, intellectual property