Teaching Note Research Articles

“D-III students deserve better”: strategic communication with college stakeholders

Research methodology This case is based solely on secondary, publicly available information. Sources include the X social media platform, Anna Maria College’s (AMC) website and the Massachusetts-based Spectrum News. Case overview/synopsis AMC administrators knew student-athletes held a stake in the institution’s success. After all, over 40% of the College’s students played on its 13 Division-III (D-III) teams, which meant a significant portion of the private institution’s tuition and student fees were paid by student-athletes. But student-athletes were not AMC’s only stakeholders. In Spring 2024, this came to a head when the College found itself intervening as a faculty member and his student-athletes struggled to communicate with one another. AMC administrators were left wondering: How should they reconcile the competing needs of their diverse stakeholder groups? Complexity academic level This case and its accompanying teaching note are appropriate for lower-level undergraduate organizational communications classes that explore how stakeholder theory can drive messaging development. The case was tested in the classroom with upper-level undergraduate students in a strategic managerial communication course. It was embedded in a unit that focused on stakeholder management and communication, and it should be a prerequisite to a unit in which students build on the case’s content to develop full, multi-touch communication campaigns.

From Teaching with Cases to Teaching through Case Development: Making Purchasing Managers and Students the Designers of Learning Journeys

The prevailing approach to producing and teaching case studies in purchasing and supply management (PSM) education involves faculty members’ creating and providing finished cases for course participants to work with. This traditional approach still has merit; but PSM education also must evolve to meet the increasing and changing demands that PSM executives face in practice. We offer an advanced and experiential learning method, wherein participants both in degree courses and in executive education programs develop a case study and the accompanying teaching material based on their engagement with real-life PSM challenges. In particular, the process of crafting a teaching note requires participants to adopt a teacher’s mindset and competencies, enhancing their effectiveness in practice as facilitators of ecosystems and as change managers. We also encourage faculty members to broaden the application of case studies beyond working on past situations. Case studies can be the end-product of field projects (consulting cases), and their development and use can be an integral part of a change management process when they become the means to gain employee commitment for ongoing strategic initiatives (implementation cases). The latter approach is particularly fruitful when case development is used in customized executive education programs because it allows the participants’ learning to feed directly into major ongoing change projects in their company. As such, cases and the case development process have the potential to develop participants’ competencies and to create direct business impact in far broader ways than traditional case study pedagogy allows.

Case Article—Optimizing Transportation and Equity in a District Zoning Problem for ORville Public Schools

This case asks students to solve a multiobjective optimization decision problem applied to school district zoning. In the case, residential areas in a school district must be assigned to middle schools having capacity limits. The operational considerations on the decision are the weighted distances traveled between students’ residences and their assigned middle school campuses. The ethical considerations pertain to equity in education and are measured using the numbers of economically disadvantaged students assigned to each middle school. This problem, including its two objectives, is motivated by a real zoning problem faced by a school district. Publicly available data from the school district and its rezoning efforts are used to populate the case. To complete the case, students model and solve an optimization problem both with and without the ethical considerations included. In doing so, they observe how ethical considerations can change the outputs generated by the optimization model. Evidence is provided from student surveys to indicate how completion of the case impacts perceptions of the importance of and understanding of how to include ethical considerations in optimization modeling. Results indicate statistically significant increases in those perceptions. Supplemental Material: The Teaching Note and DataAndMetricsDemo Excel workbook are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

Teaching ethics and ethical leadership with the Harvard Everest simulation

PurposeThis is a step-by-step guide for teaching Ethics and Ethical Leadership utilizing the Harvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation, V.3. The suggested approach is focused on facilitating a discussion and coaching students to recognize and solve problems by applying moral theory explicitly and deliberately. Applying this approach can also help them develop a habit of analyzing one’s own and others' behavior using ethical lenses and principles of authentic leadership. It offers practical debrief steps and specific discussion questions that can be used as a standalone resource or alongside the Harvard teaching note accompanying the simulation.Design/methodology/approachThis innovative approach enables teaching and coaching students on the ethical aspects of their leadership and decision-making based on this hands-on experience with the Harvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation. This approach enriches the original HBR teaching suggestions by enabling students to recognize moral dilemmas, confront typical rationalizations and practice ethical actions and decision-making in real time.FindingsIn-class discussion and student reflection assignments provide evidence of the method's effectiveness in translating values into impactful insights and enhanced likelihood of ethical behaviors in real-life scenarios. Students’ end-of-class feedback and course evaluations often cite the benefits of using the Everest simulation as a backdrop for raising self-awareness and practicing ethical decision-making.Practical implicationsThe approach discussed in the paper can serve as a flexible framework for analyzing and debriefing the HBR Everest simulation and other simulations, “survival scenario” exercises and activities designed to teach and facilitate practicing ethical leadership, authentic leadership and ethical decision making. It is adaptable and can be effectively applied across various disciplines centered around ethical leadership, teamwork, communication and decision-making in higher education and business.Originality/valueHarvard Everest Leadership and Teams Simulation is among the most popular ones in business education and is used by teachers worldwide (Roberto & Edmondson, 2017). While a comprehensive teaching note on communication and group dynamics is available through Harvard Business Publishing, it still needs to address the ethical issues students face during the simulation. This paper provides a roadmap for instructors who want to improve the student experience with ethical decision-making and ethical leadership.

Escape the Professor's Office: An Exercise of Collaboration and Game‐Play

AbstractThis teaching note illustrates how escape rooms can be utilized as a tool to teach or review business law concepts, encourage student collaboration, and provide an opportunity for gameplay. Escape rooms can be adapted to any topic, made asynchronous, and scaled up to accommodate larger groups. This note also describes the value of incorporating gameplay and collaborative pedagogy activities into the classroom and gives a complete overview of everything needed to complete “Escape the Professor's Office.”

Too good to be true! Paid parental leave for 5 years

Research methodology This case study is built from secondary data such as news articles, regulations and videos. Several drafts of the case study with a teaching note were tested in the classroom setting and shared in a case writing conference. The case was revised based on feedback from students and roundtable discussions from the conference. Case overview/synopsis Mrs Hsu, the Deputy Director of the National Taxation Bureau’s Nantou County Branch in Taiwan, faced a dilemma in June 2021. One of her employees, Mrs Chiang, had requested to return to work after taking several years of parental leave since August 2017. This long absence had put a strain on colleagues, who either had to cover for her or work with temporary replacements. While Mrs Chiang’s actions were legal and protected by her government employee role, her decision to take another leave immediately after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine raised eyebrows. Her peers accused her of using her frontline worker status to gain early vaccine access and other work benefits. Mrs Hsu, upon reviewing Mrs Chiang’s employment history, pondered her next steps concerning Mrs Chiang’s new leave request. Complexity academic level This case would be appropriate for a course in Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior or Gender, Family and Work, especially with the topic of Employment Rights/Legal Protections (in HR), and/or Justice and Ethics (in OB).

Case Article—Budding with ERP: Information and Operations Management Challenges in a Nascent Industry

The role of analytics in operations and supply chain management (OSCM) has gained significant importance due to the decision-making complexities in the current business environment. The effectiveness of most analytical approaches, in turn, relies on access to timely and accurate data and information. Hence, it is essential for OSCM students to understand the underlying processes and dynamics of information management, for which enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have become a standard. This case study can be a useful resource for introducing the critical interface between OSCM and information systems. The case study aims to facilitate learning on (1) the limitations of a rudimentary and disconnected information system, (2) the benefits and challenges of ERP implementation, and (3) the important steps to ensure a successful implementation of an ERP system. It provides an interesting context of a fast-growing agribusiness producing regulated products in Canada. The case study has been used in OSCM and management information systems (MIS) courses in two Canadian public Universities. Funding: This work was supported by Mitacs [Grants IT28747 and IT32722]. Supplemental Material: The Teaching Note and data files are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

Storytelling for Festival Experiences: A Teaching and Learning Note for the Special Issue, Festivals and Storytelling

For event management success, event management students must understand and develop skills relating to storyline development for festival (and event) experiences. However, as this teaching and learning note explains, students may not be fully developing their theoretical understanding and how to apply that understanding in practice due to their growing reliance on non-academic online resources. Teaching notes offer practical guidance for delivering and teaching various topics but are not often directed towards students. This article adapts the traditional teaching note to highlight this issue and offers a dual teaching and learning note to better support student learning and skills development.

Teaching Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God in First-Year Composition

My teaching note explores how to teach Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God in first-year composition classrooms. I discuss the demographics of my classroom in a rural public university, and my students' reactions to reading the novel. This article highlights the successes and challenges of my classroom discussions and activities relating to reader comprehension and code switching. In addition, I explore ways to implement antiracist and feminist pedagogies while keeping students out of the "panic zone."

Case Article—Prescriptive Analytics for Entrepreneurial Growth: Data-Driven Strategic Decision Making at iParty Bangkok Co., Ltd.

This case centers around the dilemma faced by the female owner of a balloon decoration business: whether to outsource transportation of balloon arrangements to third-party providers or handle the transportation of some orders in house. The case illustrates a path to answering the strategic business question through solving a sequence of vehicle routing problems (VRPs) of increasing complexity. The focus of the case is not only on solving VRPs, but also on teaching a practical framework for (1) framing a business problem as a prescriptive analytics problem; (2) researching appropriate concepts, prior publications, and tools; (3) setting up an optimization problem formulation, estimating the necessary inputs, and obtaining a solution; (4) deciding on the appropriate level of formulation complexity needed; and (5) mapping the results from the models to a response to the original business question. Realistic data and Excel models and are provided. The case is appropriate for use in courses in optimization, operations research, and business analytics at either the advanced undergraduate or master’s/MBA level. Supplemental Material: The Teaching Note and supplemental data are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

Case Article—Racial Bias in Automated Traffic Law Enforcement and the Price of Unjustness

This case study has been developed for students to practice their data analysis and optimization skills in a contemporary societal issue: that of injustice in automated traffic law enforcement. Specifically, this case study is for students of modern data analysis and statistical modeling courses that focus on hypothesis testing; it also has a component for students in optimization and mathematical modeling courses that focus on linear and network optimization. The case study has been used since Spring 2023 in a combination of two courses from the Industrial Engineering (Analysis of Data, an introduction to probability and statistics) and Civil Engineering (Transportation Systems, an introduction to mathematical modeling and optimization for civil engineers with a focus on transportation) curricula. History: This paper has been accepted for the INFORMS Transactions on Education Special Issue on DEI in ORMS Classrooms. Supplemental Material: The Teaching Note and data files are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

What’s next: Evergreen Marine Corp. after the Suez Canal incident

Research methodology This case study was built from secondary data such as news articles and videos. Several drafts of the case study with teaching note were tested in classroom settings and shared at a case writing conference. The case was revised based on feedback from students and roundtable discussions from the conference. Case overview/synopsis “What’s next: Ever Given after the Suez Canal incident (Evergreen Marine Corporation in, 2022)” explores the situation of the firm Evergreen Marine Corporation, a world-leading cargo shipping company headquartered in Taiwan, and its efforts to deal with challenges stemming from a pandemic and the global supply chain transition. The case provides background on the latest changes in global business environments, the Suez Canal Incident stemming from the grounding of Ever Given and firm-specific information, which would help students to understand the context affecting Evergreen Marine Corporation’s (EMC) strategic decisions. The case enables students to evaluate EMC’s overall position and to analyze the actions that they can take to deal with these challenges in a dynamic global environment. Complexity academic level This case would be appropriate for a course in strategy or international business, especially with the topic of international supply chain management.

Stock buybacks in the spotlight

Theoretical Basis The theoretical basis for the case is information asymmetry and signaling theory, with buybacks providing a mechanism for reducing information asymmetry between management and investors. The controversy surrounding buybacks has led to political and regulatory scrutiny, which, consistent with evidence from academic research, may affect corporate behavior. Research methodology The compact case is based on secondary, public information about stock buybacks. All sources used are cited in-text, with full citations included in the references section at the end of the teaching note. Case Overview/Synopsis Stock buybacks, a means of providing returns to shareholders, have recently received increased scrutiny by politicians, media and shareholder activists. Proponents have argued that buybacks result in efficient allocation of capital by returning funds to shareholders, whereas opponents have criticized buybacks for enriching executives, providing tax advantages to shareholders and contributing to income inequality. Corporations did not curtail their use of buybacks after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposed an excise tax. The case frames the buyback debate in current events and focuses on the buyback activity of Apple. The case provides students the opportunity to analyze alternative ways that companies can provide returns to shareholders, evaluate impacts of buybacks on corporate stakeholders and appraise the reasons for, and implications of, current controversy regarding buybacks. Complexity/Academic Level This compact case is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in financial accounting, tax and finance. This case provides an opportunity to analyze and evaluate stock buyback decisions in the context of the current controversy related to buybacks.

Case Article—Digitizing Spare Parts Supply Chain via 3D Printing: An Operational Cost Analysis

The case presents a sourcing problem and a manufacturing problem faced by an original equipment manufacturer, seeking recommendations for sourcing a diverse range of parts for high-voltage equipment, as well as making decisions on the manufacturing strategy for a component used in a water monitoring system. The case provides an opportunity to explore the qualitative and quantitative aspects of three-dimensional (3D) printing versus traditional manufacturing, specifically in terms of operational cost. Furthermore, this case facilitates discussions on the potential impact of 3D printing on supply chains. It is suitable for use in graduate and undergraduate courses, as it introduces key concepts such as manufacturing and inventory policies, queueing theory, and life cycle analysis. Ultimately, the case is designed to promote a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities that manufacturers face in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape. Supplemental Material: The Teaching Note and supplemental data are available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

Case Article—Locating a Truck Terminal in Texas

This case study introduces students to the decision-making process of a facility location problem and requires them to apply appropriate methods to recommend a desirable terminal location for CBT, a transportation provider in the United States. In response to the increasing number of drivers in the Texas market, CBT explored different options to better serve the rising demand, including a new and second terminal in a different geographic area. Students employ multi-criteria decision-making framework and optimization modeling to support their analysis using empirical data. While students use provided data to solve the problem in the base case, they need to research various publicly available databases in the case extension. This case can be used in undergraduate courses in logistics, transportation, operations, and supply chain management to apply facility location related concepts, or in a business analytics course to illustrate optimization modeling in a real-world context. Supplemental Material: Data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2022.0042ca . The Teaching Note is available at https://www.informs.org/Publications/Subscribe/Access-Restricted-Materials .

Utilitarianism, Sport Mega-Events, and Pandemic Protocols: A Case Scenario for Teaching Utilitarianism in Sport Ethics and Event Management

Sport managers need to make decisions that have moral implications on a regular basis, and applying their theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios is an essential skill in the field. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory that focuses on maximizing the production of good. The purpose of this case is to provide students with the opportunity to learn about utilitarianism (including act and rule utilitarianism) and engage in class discussions surrounding the case of pandemic protocols in sport organizations. A brief and general overview of pandemic protocols used in the sport industry is provided alongside discussion questions designed to challenge students with the application of utilitarian principles to their decision making. The case also provides a teaching note with discussion topics and potential responses.

Technological Innovation Prospects for Livestock Improvement Corporation Incorporated (LIC Inc.): What way to moo-ve next? (Case and teaching note)

Technological Innovation Prospects for Livestock Improvement Corporation Incorporated (LIC Inc.): What way to moo-ve next? (Case and teaching note)

Technological innovation prospects for Livestock Improvement Corporation Incorporated (LIC Inc.): what way to move next (Case and teaching note)

Technological innovation prospects for Livestock Improvement Corporation Incorporated (LIC Inc.): what way to move next (Case and teaching note)

Discourses on War and Peace in a Professional Ethics Classroom

Empty seats, uninterested faces and distracted student behaviour are general characteristics of the classroom where humanities subjects are taught to students of science and technology. In this article, I discuss my experience of teaching a course, Professional Ethics, that is generally discarded by the students as ‘an additional burden’ made mandatory by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for securing a bachelor of technology degree from Indian institutes of higher education. The teaching note documents the initial attitude of students towards the course content, the process of their transformation into imbibing the essence of the course, and finally the outcomes of the adapted teaching method. Socratic questioning on memes and news reports was used to sensitise the students towards the ethics of war and weapon development. In other words, the teaching process was a discourse of peace building by engaging students in sustainability dialogues.

Tata International Limited: expanding leather footwear in India

Learning outcomes The case study aims to provide students with an understanding of the challenges businesses face expanding into the home market after having an international presence through exports. It also throws light on operations in an emerging market economy – both rural and urban. The key objectives are to understand the leather footwear business operation in India, understand the challenges of expanding business in India, analyse strategies adopted to sustain and compete in India and identify the possible distribution strategies for the leather footwear business in India. Case overview/synopsis The case study focuses on Tata International Limited’s (TIL) leather and leather products business in India. The leather and leather products division was present in India since 1973 (Anand, 2020) and exported to more than 35 countries across the world (Anand, 2020). TIL did not want to miss the opportunity available in India and planned to expand its leather footwear business in the country. The company opened retail outlets in major Indian cities and an experience store in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) in 2019. It aimed for a domestic presence along with the existing export business. However, the biggest challenge that was in front of V. Muthukumaran, head of leather products division at TIL, was how to go ahead with the idea of domestic expansion (Anand, 2020). Should the company expand the market through sister companies (Westside and Tata CliQ) in India? How and in what way should TIL plan for going through Westside and Tata CLiQ? Should Muthukumaran think of either the brick-and-mortar route or the online route or both? Complexity academic level This case study is designed for use in undergraduate and graduate early-stage programmes. This case study is primarily designed for use in Master of Business Administration and/or Bachelor of Business Administration programmes. The case study is ideal for courses on understanding the expansion in the domestic market, strategy, retail and international marketing. The teaching note discusses theoretical frameworks such as external environment analysis and SWOT analysis to devise distribution strategies. The case study mapped the distribution channel and decision alternatives for the company. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.