Environmental upgrading of an apparel firm in Bangladesh: a case study of VIYELLATEX

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amira Khattak ◽  
Young-Eun Park

Subject area The case could be used in many courses in the field of business and management, for example, environmental management, strategic management, corporate strategy, green or sustainable marketing and international business. Study level/applicability The case has a difficulty level of being appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate students. However, in utilizing this case as a required component of business courses at various levels, the authors have discovered a different approaching between undergraduate students and postgraduate students in answering those discussion questions. Undergraduate students have tended to focus on the more conceptual and basic approaching based on understanding the main concepts of environmental upgrading. Postgraduate students have a better application and critical thinking based on a better understanding of the fundamental knowledge and concepts. Accordingly, the case has been developed in a manner that will allow students to realize the importance of environmental issues and analyze the company’s main issues as detailed in the case and then suggest opinions and any ideas for the strategy the company should consider and pursue in future. Furthermore, students should identify several points on the company’s chosen strategies and actions for environmental upgrading. Case overview This case is written in the form of an interview with the Chairman and chief executive officer of VIYELLATEX Group, one of the leading firms which embarked upon environmental upgrading in the apparel industry of Bangladesh and in the world. This is an analytical case and not a decision-making one. The main theme of the case revolves around analyzing what drove VIYELLATEX Group to upgrade environmentally, how the group upgraded, the challenges that VIYELLATEX Group has faced and outcomes of environmental upgrading. Environmental upgrading implies an improvement in environmental performance through changes in technological, social and organizational processes and avoiding or reducing the environmental impacts of businesses. In summary, the VIYELLATEX case is an investigation of a leading company in Bangladesh to implement environmental standards and management practices being part of the apparel global apparel industry governed by global retailers and brand marketers. Expected learning outcomes The learning outcomes are understanding of “corporate sustainability” as a corporate social responsibility of business philosophy, understanding of key features of the apparel industry in Bangladesh, understanding of the main issues and challenges faced by the apparel firms (suppliers) involved in international business regarding environmental upgrading, understanding of the relationship with primary stakeholders, in particular buyers of apparel firm (defining stakeholders and how to cooperate with stakeholders) and understanding of the environmental upgrading in terms of its drivers, processes and outcomes. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code: CSS 4 Environmental Management.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Antonio Eduardo Meier

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: The importance of doing business ethically; how to build trust relationships; how to develop a market; and how to react to a change in business and trust conditions. Case overview/synopsis The case is about the importance of doing business in an ethical manner. In how you can build trust relationships between supplier companies and buyers, and how that strong relationship can be destroyed by short-term interest, affecting the viability of business. Complexity academic level The case could be taught to undergraduate students who are studying Business Administration. The case could also be applied in MBA programs. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 5: International Business


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Caleb Huanyong Chen ◽  
Allan KK Chan

Subject area International Expansion; Emerging Markets; Corporate Strategy; Strategic Management. Study level/applicability Senior undergraduate; MBA; EMBA. Case overview This case focuses on the international expansion of Hon Chuan Enterprise, a beverage packaging and filling company headquartered in Taiwan. The company has set foot in Africa after its development in mainland China and Southeast Asia. Its 41st factory has just started production in Mozambique, Africa. The African base may help the company reach the turnover milestone of NT$20bn (approximately US$640m) in the next year. This NT$20bn turnover has been a target every year since 2013, but they have so far failed to reach it. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in beverage packaging and filling, Hon Chuan to some extent relies on customers that own brands. After losing a key customer in mainland China, the company has experienced a three-year slump that forced the company’s president, Hish-Chung Tsao, to modify his strategy. Africa was the new battlefield bearing his ambition. His intention was not just to add another manufacturing base, but to develop its own beverage brands as an OBM. Yet, how could this be achieved in Africa? It would be a new journey full of challenges. Africa was more complex than other markets. The company’s first factory there had just been established, and its future was still unknown. Expected learning outcomes This case is appropriate for courses in international business, emerging markets, corporate strategy and marketing management. After studying the case, students should be able to understand international expansion of a manufacturing company in emerging markets; understand several key emerging markets of the world and learn what CAGE distances are; identify Hon Chuan’s success factors, challenges and necessary capabilities for future development and then comprehend why it is important to upgrade from OEM to OBM; and learn how to develop beverage brands in emerging markets. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 5: International Business.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Noy ◽  
Teresa Capetola ◽  
Rebecca Patrick

Purpose Education for Sustainability in Higher Education (ESHE) sits within and across disciplinary settings that share the need for a framework that provides a basis for pedagogy, assessment and learning outcomes (Kalsoom, 2019). ESHE strives to create transformative learning spaces that help students gain the knowledge and skills they need to understand and contribute to shaping a world based on communities living within the limits of earth’s resources. This paper aims to offer a novel solution to the challenge of teaching students from different disciplines struggling with the complexity of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The paper explores the development of an interdisciplinary subject designed for undergraduate students from four faculties. It presents a case study of pedagogy that moves away from three pillars/concentric circles approaches towards practices based in systems thinking and interactive transformative learning. It describes the iterative process of developing and implementing an infographic: the “Sustainability Wheel of Fortune” (Wheel), to support constructive alignment of content, assessment tasks and learning outcomes. Findings The Wheel provides a holistic, interconnected and dynamic focus for framing content and teaching. The pedagogy aligns with sustainability competencies, builds in flexibility in response to changing times and student experiences and provides teachers and students with a common framework for interrogating the possibilities for sustainable futures. Originality/value The Wheel is a novel learning tool for contemporary sustainability education. It captures key elements of approaches to and concepts about sustainability, visually reinforces the idea of a holistic interconnected approach and provides a framework that supports the constructive pedagogy of an interdisciplinary sustainability subject.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali H. Choucri ◽  
Anne Dietterich ◽  
Victoria Gillern ◽  
Julia Ivy

Learning outcomes Expected learning outcomes: To respond to the case question, students would analyze macro- and microeconomic differences to determine HC Securities’ preferred global strategy and appropriate market entry mode. The case demonstrates how instability in a local market, in this case Egypt, can force a company to go global. It also demonstrates how two superficially similar markets, Singapore and Hong Kong, provide different opportunities for HC Securities and require different global strategies: Singapore provides a jumping-off point to its predominantly Muslim neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia, whereas Hong Kong gives access to China and could provide a new customer base of Asian investors willing to invest in Africa and the Middle East. Case overview/synopsis Brief overview of the case: The case introduces the Egyptian investment company HC Securities, which is facing challenges related to Egypt’s political instability and economic slowdown. HC Securities’ CEO, Mr. Choucri, feels expansion to one of the Asia-Pacific countries could help with the company’s growth and stability. He identifies Hong Kong and Singapore as the most compelling locations because of their sophisticated economies and growth potential in the investments industry. This case provides information about each market, allowing students to respond to the question “What should Choucri do to assure a market-based solution for his company?” Complexity academic level Student level and proposed courses: The case is appropriate for use in undergraduate courses in international business or strategic management. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code International Business.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-63
Author(s):  
Richard Thomson ◽  
Katherine Hofmeyr ◽  
Amanda Bowen

Case overview At midnight on Thursday, 26 March 2020, the South African government ordered a three-week lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently extended this lockdown for a further two weeks until the end of April 2020. Among other measures, businesses not classed as “essential” had to cease operation. This meant that Jonathan Robinson, founder of the Bean There Coffee Company had to close his trendy Cape Town and Milpark coffee shops, as well as the company’s hospitality and corporate business. At the same time, Bean There’s costs increased by 25%, as the rand: dollar exchange rate worsened substantially. A glimmer of hope was that the company was able to continue roasting coffee and supplying its retail clients. Unlike most captains of industry, Robinson was not driven by the bottom line and clamouring shareholders. His corporate strategy was driven by a single, simple purpose: to achieve ethical sustainability aspirations while still running a profitable business. The question for him now, however, was how to ensure that his company could survive in the short term, so that it could achieve these goals in the longer term, and whether he could take this opportunity to think about whether his business was best positioned to achieve these goals when things returned to normal. Expected learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: conduct a thorough analysis of a specific company and its industry, including its markets, competitors, and other aspects of the internal and external business environment, using a range of tools, including a Business Model Canvas (BMC), SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis; analyse and explain the market outlook of a company; identify and analyse a company’s competitors; discuss and explain a detailed implementation plan showing the way forward for a company, considering its current challenges, including integrating a range of conceptual and analytical fields of knowledge to assess a management dilemma, and arrive at a creative and innovative management solution; and be able to present information and defend substantial insights and solutions to a management dilemma in oral and written modes, appropriate in standard for both the academic and business communities to analyse and appreciate. Complexity academic level Postgraduate Diploma in Management, MBA, Masters in Management, Executive Education. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Abd Latiff Sukri Bin Shamsuri ◽  
Ponmalar N. Alagappar ◽  
Dileep Kumar

Subject area Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, Organizational Change Management. Study level/applicability Postgraduate and undergraduate students. Case overview Restoran Minang Plus is a self-styled family-owned and managed restaurant featuring a gamut of Malaysian Negeri Sembilan and Indonesian Padang dishes. The eatery establishment has sailed the food industry waters successfully since 2004 and currently has five branches. However, there are certain imperatives they have to institute to integrate their entrepreneurial challenges with organizational change management. The nature of the forces in the competitive restaurant landscape requires a continuous rethinking of current strategic actions, organizational change, communication systems, motivation, asset deployment and strategic flexibility to respond quickly to changing conditions and thereby develop and maintain a competitive advantage. The question is how do they integrate this organizational change management to their entrepreneurial challenges with a view to achieve and maintain competitive advantage? Expected learning outcomes The expected learning outcomes are as follows: understanding managing diversity by looking at the different categories of diversity, that is, generic characteristics and learned characteristics that influence work attitudes; explaining how fostering learning and reinforcement can help in increasing job satisfaction; describing the basic motivational needs of the employees and how it can help in increasing job performance; understanding how an entrepreneurial firm can maximize its firm performance through effective change management; and understanding the importance of strategic management in an entrepreneurial firm. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sergio Morales ◽  
Oswaldo Morales

Learning outcomes La contribución del presente caso yace en la mirada crítica que debe ejercer todo actor de negocios –sea gerente general, mando intermedio, supervisor o ejecutivo– al momento de construir una sólida cultura organizacional en entornos políticos corruptos. Case overview/synopsis El presente caso de estudio tiene por objetivo explorar el dilema en el que se halló Marcelo Odebrecht, otrora CEO de Odebrecht: determinar si debe continuar con el modelo de negocio instaurado por los fundadores de Odebrecht o emprender un nuevo camino para la organización. Tras explorar los actos corruptos de Odebrecht y los alcances de la Operación Lava Jato, el lector podrá reflexionar sobre la importancia de la cultura organizacional (según los tres niveles propuestos por Schein) frente a la emergencia de la corrupción. Generando discusiones sobre cultura organizacional, ética empresarial, cultura política y corrupción, se problematiza la cultura organizacional de Odebrecht en relación a su comportamiento real. Complexity academic level Estudiantes de administración, negocios y negocios internacionales de pregrado y posgrado, así como miembros de la alta dirección en compañías del sector infraestructura. Asimismo, dada la pluralidad de posibles lecturas, se recomienda que el caso sea empleado también en cursos o especializaciones de psicología organizacional, sociología organizacional o antropología organizacional. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 5: International Business


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Armando Borda ◽  
Carlos Cordova ◽  
Juan Carlos Leon

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: students will identify the reasons for a firm to internationalize and its specific internationalization entry mode; students will distinguish how to follow the client and how physic distance strategies work; students will analyze a host country’s external environment using the PESTEL framework, and they will analyze the international strategies followed by a multinational enterprise using the integration-responsiveness framework as well. Case overview/synopsis The authors explore the case of DICOMA Corporation, a Costa Rican multinational enterprise with presence in five countries. Adrian Sanchez, who is Dicoma’s president, needs to craft an international strategy to increase the international sales in the foreign markets where the firm operates. The company may follow two paths. On the one hand, Dicoma can adopt the strategy of following its major clients to expand overseas, which will lead to the opening of operations in more countries, but making the foreign sales highly dependent on these types of partnerships. This has been so far the path pursued by Dicoma in its international expansion. On the other hand, Dicoma can opt to focus on increasing commitments in the existing international markets where it already has operations by capturing new clients in those locations but scarifying the potential business opportunities to enter into other countries in partnership with its major clients. Complexity academic level Post-graduate early stage business students enrolled in programs such as Master of Business Administration, Master of Management, Master of International Business, executive education programs, among others. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available upon request for educators only. These teaching notes should be shared solely with the instructor and students should not have access to. Please contact your library to gain login or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 5: International Business.


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathews Nkhoma ◽  
Narumon Sriratanaviriyakul ◽  
Hiep Pham Cong ◽  
Tri Khai Lam

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of real, localized case studies on students’ learning engagement, the learning process and learning experience and the role of such case studies in influencing students’ learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 400 undergraduate students through an online questionnaire immediately after discussion of the case in Business Information Systems classes. Student learning from the case study was measured by two components consisting of case knowledge and case perceptions. The student course engagement questionnaire was used to examine engagement in skills, emotions, participation and performance while the study process questionnaire was administered to assess students’ learning approaches. Additionally, the seven predominant roles of the feedback were used to analyse students’ learning experience. Finally, students’ learning outcomes were assessed both in group performance and individual performance. Structure equation modelling was applied to test the causal model. Findings – The results revealed that the case study had a positive influence on students’ engagement in skills and emotions. Moreover, case perceptions led students to surface approach in their learning. Furthermore, case knowledge had a positive impact on the learning experience. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that localized case studies should be designed cautiously. Furthermore the method of instruction regarding the method must be clearly explained for undergraduate students. Future research should consider a way of evaluating academic achievement as a result of using localized cases. Originality/value – The findings reported in the paper contributed to an area of educational research by emphasizing on the mediating role of learning engagement, the learning process and the learning experience.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Hari Narain Singh ◽  
D.K. Singh

Subject area This paper aims to understand the subject of entrepreneurship and project management through techno-economic intervention. Study level/applicability Postgraduate students of management and graduate students of engineering and management. Case overview Multiple challenges existed at the ground level in the Moradabad Brass Cluster in terms of gaps in technology, skill, infrastructure and market that all needed to be improved upon. Expected learning outcomes The objectives and learning outcomes were proposed to understand the cluster economic crisis, entrepreneurship, project management, technical improvements and better understanding of certain theories. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.


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