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In 2017, the humble jackfruit, which grew in weed-like abundance in India, gained sudden prominence in the United States. The underutilized jackfruit crop was also gaining recognition globally for its role in addressing food security issues. An entrepreneur who had pioneered methods of jackfruit processing at Artocarpus Foods Private Limited in his native state of Kerala, India, had faced many entrepreneurial challenges in establishing Hebon, his brand of processed jackfruit products. Now he was considering whether to pursue the opportunity to exploit the overseas market or to continue focusing on domestic expansion.

Describes the entrepreneurial leadership of Jack Manning Bancroft (JMB), a young Australian Indigenous university student who created the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a nonprofit organization he formed to respond to the problem of Indigenous high school students completing high school at less than half the rate of non- Indigenous students. The case traces the strategic, organizational and cultural challenges JMB faced in building an organization that eventually offered mentoring partnerships to 8000 Indigenous students in 350 high schools throughout Australia. Furthermore, the AIME students were completing school and going on to university at the same rate as nonindigenous students. The case concludes as JMB contemplates taking his successful, sophisticated model to the United States.

Supplement to case 919411.

In December 2017, the corporate vice-president of Microsoft Corporation’s Devices division was considering two options to chart a strategic course for the next few years. Since first joining Microsoft Corporation in 2004, one of the vice-president's key roles had been to oversee the strategic direction of the personal computing hardware business. The company, which was headquartered in Washington State in the United States, had a multitude of products and services that presented both opportunities and challenges for its future. Microsoft Corporation had to decide between two project options that represented growth in different business areas in Asia Pacific. The first option was to launch new products from the company's Surface division in the Asia Pacific market. This could be Microsoft Corporation’s opportunity to showcase its holistic devices ecosystem to prospective customers in the region. The second option was to intensify efforts to market and sell the firm’s cloud solutions. This could further differentiate Microsoft Corporation as an early mover enabling enterprises to migrate to the cloud.

In August 2017, AMC Networks Inc. (AMCN), a New York City–based cable television provider, faced a lawsuit from the creative talent behind the hit show The Walking Dead. The lawsuit charged that AMCN used its vertical integration into content development to reduce the profits available for distribution to participants. For AMCN, which was originally a content distributor, expanding into content creation through its AMC Studios had several benefits. However, the industry was changing with the advent of online streaming services such as Netflix Inc., Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as an industry-wide shift among cable networks to offer proprietary content. These changes had an impact on the relationship between the business and the creative side of the industry. AMCN’s chief executive officer had to decide how to respond to the lawsuit.

Digital customer service agents (known as virtual assistants, chatbots, or softbots) are typically used to sift through and process only the most straightforward customer inquiries, such as requests for basic information. At most companies, complex issues get passed along to human agents. In that regard, public sector agencies in Australia are ahead of the curve: They are using digital agents to handle complex inquiries from citizens, and businesses stand to learn much from these applications.

Educators and entrepreneurs alike are excited about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to change the way learning will look like in the future. There is a confluence of factors such as the availability of large sources of rich, granular data; fast connectivity; powerful processing capabilities at a lower cost; and the ubiquity of mobile devices driving the imagination of entrepreneurs who are envisioning a world powered by AI to change the way learning should happen. One of the exciting companies to emerge in this field is Liulishuo. Founded in 2012, Liulishuo operates mobile apps for English speaking practice and uses AI technologies to power personalized, adaptive learning experience. Co-founder Wang Yi and his colleagues believe that AI technologies could be a disruptive force in every aspect of English learning, including proficiency improvement and test preparation. They believe that AI technology could benefit English learners around the world and make everyone a global citizen.

In 2015, Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco) was ranked as one of the world’s largest global retailers based on sales revenue, second only to Walmart Inc. It had successfully expanded into eight international markets: Canada, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Mexico, Taiwan, Australia, and the United Kingdom, managing to grow despite the turbulent economic conditions prevalent in these countries. Costco challenged stereotypes and employed unconventional business strategies to position itself as a leading transnational retailer. Costco’s business model was crucial to the company’s financial success and expansion over the years. Key company success factors included its membership-based operating model, its focus on low-cost efficiencies, the perceived quality and value of the Kirkland Signature brand, and its philosophy of rewarding human capital. However, as Costco made plans to expand its operations, it faced challenges due to intensified competition in the global retail industry and policies and regulations in local markets that restricted big box retailers. In this context of uncertain international markets, which markets should it enter next? What was the best entry method for each individual market?

Konica Minolta Business Solutions (HK) Ltd. was likely the first multinational corporation in Hong Kong to put the ideas of corporate social enterprising into practice. Its new service business that was launched in 2014 (the i-Transform Station) employed so-called “hidden youths”—disadvantaged individuals who refrained from joining mainstream society—empowering them to reconnect with society. While the initiative drew the attention of the company's headquarters in Japan, the company experienced difficulties attracting enough hidden youths for its growing i-Transform Station, despite actively seeking the help of social workers in identifying potential employees. The managing director who initiated the program wanted to increase the engagement of hidden youth and, more importantly, to inject the ideas of social enterprise and the creation of shared value into Hong Kong society. In 2018, having received some suggestions from social workers and others, the managing director reflected on alternative options for the program's future.

The owner of Inverroche Distillery established a viable business incorporating fynbos, the unique flora growing around the remote community of Still Bay, South Africa, into her premium gins. She grew Inverroche Distillery into the dominant brand in the artisanal gin segment of the South African gin market and beyond. In 2018, she was facing key decisions about taking her business forward. Should she grow Inverroche Distillery by actively focusing on expanding her business internationally, or should she instead focus on growth in the domestic market? If she decided to go global, was the US market the best choice for expanding her business? If she were to enter the US market, what mode of entry would be most appropriate, taking Inverroche’s firm-specific resources into account?

Railroad magnate Jay Gould, a controversial figure in the history of U.S. capitalism, was a disruptive influence on an industry that had previously relied on formal and informal agreements to move traffic long distances across lines operated by different companies. Gould and his competitors replaced these agreements with consolidation and system-building, a process which led to the rise of government regulation of railroads in the 1880s and to widespread railroad bankruptcies in the 1890s. This case explores the growth of early American railroads, places Gould's career in context (including his famous attempt to corner the U.S. gold market), and demonstrates the implications of his activities on competitive dynamics in the railroad industry.

Kapap Academy Pte. Ltd. (Kapap Academy) was established in 2007, following the tragic death of the founder’s older brother, with a mission to empower everyday people to learn realistic self-defence skills. The founder and his apprentice-turned-business partner formulated a simple yet functional brand of self-defence, which they named the Modern Street Combatives method. Kapap Academy’s social mission was evident in its provision of both heavily discounted and completely free training sessions for needy and vulnerable segments of society—in particular, women who were victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault, as well as the elderly. Kapap Academy was able to sustain this social mission with a dual income stream. After its 10th-year anniversary, Kapap Academy was looking to export its brand of Modern Street Combatives overseas. This posed various challenges; in particular, whether to adopt a licensing model or a franchise arrangement. Each model had its pros and cons, but a decision had to be made.

Despite tremendous interest in how online communities create value, existing research tends to focus on limited means through which such value is generated. In this article, we develop a conceptual model of customer value formation. This model rests on two dimensions, namely whether value is formed in the customer or provider domain and whether the value is individual or collective in nature. This enables value formation to be characterized in four ways and enables a more nuanced view of value formation to emerge. Firms are encouraged to reflect on their efforts to support each of the four value formation types. In particular, our conceptualization challenges companies to consider customer contexts outside of customer-firm interaction as important sources of value creation for customers. Such reflection enables practitioners to develop strategies for supporting individual and collective value creation across both the customer and provider domains.

The most successful and longest-enduring family firms are progressively encouraging the active presence of women on their corporate boards. Why is the presence of women on boards so important for family firms? And how can policy makers and controlling owners encourage the active presence of women on family business corporate boards? By integrating the literature on women in governance and the goals of family businesses, we take a step toward increasing shareholder awareness of the economic and noneconomic benefits that women can bring to the family business boardroom. Using theory and empirical evidence, we show that the presence of women on corporate boards can be instrumental for the controlling owners of a family business to achieve prosperity and success, to preserve family cohesion, and to improve the reputation of the family and business simultaneously. Furthermore, we discuss the socioemotional and economic ramifications of excluding women from the family business board of directors. We conclude with four practical recommendations for encouraging the active presence of women on family business boards.

In the face of rising business complexity and competitive pressure, many firms succumb to price pressures and enter pricing wars. Others focus on creating, quantifying, and capturing pricing power from their market. Since 2011, with help from Warren Buffet and Jim Cramer, Wall Street financial analysts have begun paying close attention to firms with great pricing power. But what is pricing power? How do firms know whether they have it? And how does it affect profit? This research, based on a survey of 128 organizations, identifies and validates the drivers of pricing power and its impact on firm performance. In this article, I create and validate a pricing power assessment instrument that firms can use to get started. This article offers practical recommendations for go-to-market functions on how to start the pricing power discussion, how to measure it, and how to operationalize it.

In 2017, wait times for kidney transplants in Ontario were getting out of hand. While patients from London Health Sciences Centre's kidney transplant program in London, Ontario, had a reasonable wait of approximately one year, patients in Toronto's kidney transplant program waited almost four years. In an attempt to improve the overall wait times for all Ontario patients, the provincial Ministry of Health intended to merge the two currently independent programs and create a unified wait-list. Two doctors at London Health Sciences Centre were concerned about the effects of the merger for their patients in London, and asked an analytics specialist to determine the effects of the merger. Would the merger have the adverse outcome they expected for their patients' wait times?

America’s Business Roundtable (BRT)—currently comprised of nearly 200 CEOs, ranging from General Motors’ Mary Barra to Apple’s Tim Cook—recently issued a statement that says making money for shareholders is not the only responsibility of management. For decades, a shareholders-first model was widely considered corporate orthodoxy in the United States, where boardroom focus has long been influenced by University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman’s 1970 essay “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” In August 2019, the group of CEOs updated its thinking on the matter in a 300-word statement that doesn’t mention shareholders until the end of a list of commitments that starts with “delivering value to our customers” and “investing in our employees,” then moves on to “dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers” and “supporting the communities in which we work,” before finishing with “generating long-term value for shareholders.” The BRT’s shift in thinking comes at a time when corporate America faces distress due to global discontent over income inequality, harmful products, and poor working conditions. The BRT has diplomatically signaled that corporations should be more careful than they were in the past when the short-term financial interests of shareholders conflict with the interests of other stakeholders. This could have significant implications for dividend and share-buyback programs.

Future annual growth prospects for the Canadian economy remain under two per cent, which is a far cry from the over three per cent growth during much of Canada’s history. But it doesn’t have to be this way. All roads to productivity growth go through workers having the best, most innovative facilities and tools—that is, business investment. In Canada, consumer spending, at about 60 per cent of GDP, swamps business investment, at about 12 per cent. But it is business investment that shapes the economy for the longer term. Unfortunately, Canada’s record on business investment borders on serious neglect. The lamentable business investment situation has multiple causes. First, the economy has struggled since the 2008 financial crisis. Second, household credit is near a record 175 per cent of disposable income. Third, Canadian business investment is biased towards resource sectors like oil and gas. Fourth, when the Trump Administration cut the U.S. corporate tax rate, this ended a significant Canadian economic advantage. Fifth, Trump has gotten rid of many government regulations. Finally, Canada’s federal deficit is unfavourable to business investment. Government rhetoric on business investment must be backed up by monetary and non-financial incentives that will significantly change corporate behavior, such as a much bigger tax package. Unfortunately, business investment isn’t a headline story, which is why executives need to press the business investment agenda with the government at every opportunity.