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Star Digital, a multichannel video service provider with over US$100 million in annual advertising spends, was gradually increasing its online advertising spend. The company was extremely active in managing its substantial advertising budget, using return on investment information to make spending decisions. Even though the internet provided a promising platform to measure ad effectiveness, doing so for display ads was proving difficult. The two common approaches to measuring display ad effectiveness tended to either under or over value conversion rates. To truly measure the effect on sales conversion, Star Digital needed to understand what users would have done if they had not seen campaign ads. To do so, Star Digital designed a controlled experiment to measure the effect of display ads for one of its advertising campaigns. This case describes Star Digital's experiment, focusing on the experiment design and how the company addressed various design issues. The case includes an Excel spreadsheet that contains sample data from the experiment. Students need to analyze the spreadsheet data to answer questions on the effectiveness of Star Digital's display ads. This case study is based on data from an online advertising study for a real firm, but the name of the firm and some elements of the data have been disguised for confidentiality.

Senior management of a large stock exchange is reviewing a recent software problem that resulted in a botched opening for the initial public offering of a popular social media company. They are drawing up a list of recommendations on how to prevent this type of failure in the future, taking into account the needs of their various stakeholders, including customers, market makers, listed firms, regulators and shareholders. Overviews of the stock market, NASDAQ in particular, and the use of technology to trade stocks securely and quickly are followed by examining the aftermath of a delay in the correct trading of Facebook shares on its opening.

Ashifi Gogo, founder and CEO of Sproxil, wants to scale his mobile product authentication technology to new applications and new regions, but he is uncertain which business model to use. Sproxil is a Nigeria-based company that verifies the authenticity of medicines using a scratch-off code and SMS. Students are asked to examine the role of private and public actors in verifying the quality of medicines as well as the advantages and disadvantages of non-profit and social enterprise models in providing people at the Base of the Pyramid with this much-needed service.

The case describes competition in the market for E-Books, and Barnes & Noble's Strategy in this industry. As a traditional retailer, B&N was challenged by the introduction of digital technologies that allow books to be published, distributed and sold to consumers electronically. New competitors like Amazon and Apple attacked the traditional industry structure, creating many uncertainties over the long term viability of traditional retailers. Amid this uncertainty, B&N must decide how to compete, in terms of both devices that can read E-Books, as well as standards for their distribution. Should they create a separate digital business, centered around their "Nook" E-Book reader, or maintain an integrated strategy? And how should they think about the fragmented standards for distributing E-Books? The case allows students to probe the dynamics of platform based industries, as well as what happens in traditional industries when attacked by new competitors adopting new digital technologies. It is developed using public source material.

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through the acquisition of two electronic security distribution companies: Tri-Ed Distribution and Northern Video Systems. Twenty-four months after successfully integrating the two companies, Brazos has received two attractive offers for the combined distributor. With the company's management projecting double-digit growth for 2012, however, it is far from clear that now is the optimal time to exit from the firm's third fund.

James Baker is general manager of a large lumber mill in rural Virginia, Johnson Lumber. While on a business trip with the owner (the founder's grandson) and the owner's son, he receives the news that the company's planing mill has caught fire and is burning down. Baker, the owner, and the owner's son must decide what to do in the wake of losing the planing mill. Choices include rebuilding, seeking partnerships with other mills to use their facilities to fulfill existing business, or possibly closing shop and simply taking current profits. If they rebuild, Johnson Lumber will have to shut down for a year, risking the loss of customers and putting several people from the struggling community around the mill out of a job. If Johnson Lumber closes entirely, it will put its workers in an even worse position. But would it be feasible to use other mills' facilities? What if the other mills turned them down? On top of everything, the owner and his son have differences in their attitudes about and goals for the business. Baker must consider the options carefully and balance the pressure to please both the current and future owners of Johnson Lumber with what would be best for the business and the local community whose families it helped support.

As the world population exceeded 7 billion by the end of 2011, various agencies working to alleviate poverty had come to a general consensus that pure charity was not a sustainable solution. In the absence of venture capital and angel investors in developing markets, Microfinance (MF) was one of the most promising tools in the fight against poverty. MF institutions tended to focus on micro-lending, providing small loans to micro-entrepreneurs from which interest could be earned. This case details the issues and challenges that Microfinance institutions faced a decade into the new millennium. The rise of mobile technology is a key theme as it promised innovative solutions. The case discusses various mobile financial services, including Safaricom's M-Pesa and M-Kesho offerings, and focuses on Experian's MicroAnalytics (EMA) unit, created to serve the financial services sector in developing countries. EMA developed an innovative system to enable financial service providers (clients) to serve their customers via a distributed, branchless, "mobile only" model. After a successful pilot study in the Philippines, EMA created a mobile banking platform that offered the potential of extending mobile money to other financial services as well as new customer and geographic segments.

In this fictionalized case study, an in-house lawyer at a cosmetics company is trying to decide the best approach to negotiating with a government entity. The company is the largest extractor of volcanic ash in the Northern Mariana Islands and the governor of the territory has proposed a large tax increase. The lawyer believes the company should approach the negotiation carefully, but the company's CEO wants to take a harder line and threaten to shut down. The CEO wants to issue a press release to that effect. The lawyer must decide whether making a statement to the press is the right tactic. Written by Francesca Gino and featuring expert commentary by Andrzej Klesyk and Michael Hartman.

In this fictionalized case study, an in-house lawyer at a cosmetics company is trying to decide the best approach to negotiating with a government entity. The company is the largest extractor of volcanic ash in the Northern Mariana Islands and the governor of the territory has proposed a large tax increase. The lawyer believes the company should approach the negotiation carefully, but the company's CEO wants to take a harder line and threaten to shut down. The CEO wants to issue a press release to that effect. The lawyer must decide whether making a statement to the press is the right tactic. Written by Francesca Gino and featuring expert commentary by Andrzej Klesyk and Michael Hartman.

In this fictionalized case study, an in-house lawyer at a cosmetics company is trying to decide the best approach to negotiating with a government entity. The company is the largest extractor of volcanic ash in the Northern Mariana Islands and the governor of the territory has proposed a large tax increase. The lawyer believes the company should approach the negotiation carefully, but the company's CEO wants to take a harder line and threaten to shut down. The CEO wants to issue a press release to that effect. The lawyer must decide whether making a statement to the press is the right tactic. Written by Francesca Gino and featuring expert commentary by Andrzej Klesyk and Michael Hartman.

Bent Mikkelsen is executive director of economic development for Denmark's second largest region, MidJutland (Central Denmark Region).. As the case opens, he is contemplating comments he has read suggesting that one of the main programs within his entrepreneurship responsibilities, the Growth House program, may not be working as well as he and others had hoped. This is the core program in his entrepreneurship development responsibilities, and a flagship program developed for the regions by the federal Danish Business Authority. The case describes Denmark's entrepreneurship and innovation policies, as well as its accomplishments, at least in terms of achieving top rankings in entrepreneurship policies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Union. Whereas more high-growth venture activity has evolved in Copenhagen, no one in Denmark claims that this is sufficient, and serious doubt that this success can be replicated in the other four regions, including MidJutland. Should every region be a locus of high-growth entrepreneurship, when talented entrepreneurs are moving to Copenhagen for its concentration of resources? Despite the fact that historically, numerous global ventures have emerged from the Central Denmark region, it appears that these older-generation entrepreneurs are not very involved in stimulating entrepreneurship among the current generation. Mikkelsen must decide if and how to tap into the expertise of the successful global Danish firms in entrepreneurial development in the region, increase the rate and effectiveness of angel investing in new ventures, and position the Growth House program better so as to accelerate private sector investment. He also wonders if the existing social and economic development programs are actually deterring risk-taking, and whether it might be time for regional authorities to stop playing such an active role.

First Green Bank is a bank start-up in the midst of the financial crisis which aims to promote sustainability while making money as a bank. The case presents an ethical dilemma as the bank considers a loan to an arms manufacturer.

Nate Katz at Yokun Ridge Capital Management is evaluating an investment in Assured Guaranty, a municipal bond insurance company that is trading at a discount to book value.

The Carlyle Group IPO case explores the circumstances leading up to the firm's IPO in May 2012. Over the past 25 years, Carlyle had grown from a fledgling private equity firm to one of the world's largest and most diversified investment firms. Carlyle had prepared extensively for the roadshow; management anticipated some tough questions. Students are asked to evaluate the extent to which Carlyle is undervalued relative to its peers. The case provides information on how to evaluate the earnings received by the public shareholders and outlines several alternative approaches to value PPEs.

The U.S. presidential primary elections represent an especially challenging decision context. The four candidates in the 2012 Florida Republican primary, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, all have strengths and weakness in the eyes of a Republican primary voter. In this case, these qualities are illustrated by the candidates' statements and their reported actions during the campaign. The Republican primary voter must use the information given to decide which candidate to support. Furthermore, in a typical business or political decision, a person chooses on the basis of his or her personal preference. In a primary election, however, voters are advised to take into account the candidate they think can win the later presidential election, which greatly complicates the decision-making process.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) had first ventured into international markets 70 years ago. By 2012, M&S had 337 stores in 41 countries. Although M&S saw itself as a U.K. retailer that exported its products, the company had been attempting to reduce its dependency on the U.K. economic cycle. Its goal was to increase international sales from £800 million to £1.0 billion by 2013/14. By 2020, M&S wanted to be an international, multi-channel retailer. When the company entered the Chinese market in 2008, it faced many difficulties. It had failed to conduct proper market research to understand the Chinese consumer, which had led to many issues. The company had neglected to address the cultural gaps between the United Kingdom and China. It had also taken an approach of standardizing its products, instead of adapting products to the new market. Students must consider the marketing mix policies of product, price, placement and promotion to recommend changes to M&S's entry into China.

This teaching case discusses the challenges facing GreenField Software (GFS), a start-up company offering software products and services to support sustainability. The case describes the start-up process, the crafting of the firm's strategy and structure, and the development of its products and services in the emerging 'green Information Technology (IT)' industry. It follows the key decisions made by the CEO and his executive team as they navigate a shifting and increasingly competitive marketplace. As GFS approaches the 2-year anniversary of its launch, the team must decide several key issues. These include whether to market their product as a business continuity solution or as a 'green IT' solution; what intellectual property will differentiate them from the competition; and how to respond to the changing needs of the marketplace.

Case A describes the creation and growth of Nuru Energy. Starting from nothing, the founder 'bootstraps' a social venture with the goal of providing affordable and effective lighting solutions for 800 million people without access to the electricity grid in sub-Saharan Africa and India. The case narrates the challenges involved in developing a social enterprise with a dual aim of turning a profit and making a social impact. It focuses in particular on the finanical challenge and provides a context to discuss difference financing options and their implications. It looks at the different business model alternatives - market-based and donor-based. The central theme is to assess the merits and drawbacks of the different funding alternatives. Case B is an update that explains what financing option the founder chose and its implications. It sets the stage for a discussion about trade-offs in the geographical expansion of social ventures.