Free business case studies online

This is an update on an answer I wrote on Quora in 2016. As a lecturer in a business school, I often use business case studies in my classes. They are really useful to help students to apply the theories and concepts which they have learnt in class to actual business case studies. 

I always emphasise that there is no wrong or right answer but rather a bad or good answer and often this is based on their justification and analysis of the information provided in the case studies. So far, I have edited three case study books, namely: 

1.  Management of Shari’ah Compliant Businesses: Case Studies on Creation of Sustainable Value (2019). Ghazali, E., Mutum, D.S., Rashid, M., Ahmed, J.U. (Eds), Springer. 
2. Services Marketing Cases in Emerging Markets: An Asian Perspective (2017, Ebook came out in 2016), Roy, S.; Mutum, D. and Nguyen, B. (Eds), Springer. 
3.  Marketing Cases from Emerging Markets (2014). Mutum, D., Roy, S. and Kipnis, E. (Eds), Springer. 

There are also several free sources on the net but the quality of cases vary greatly. 

For MBA case studies, here are two great sources: 

1. Copenhagen Business School (CBS) collection 

New cases are added regularly. Though I mostly use marketing related case studies, they have several interdisciplinary cases. 

2. MIT Sloan School of Management 

Cases classified under entrepreneurship, leadership/ethics, operations management, strategy, sustainability, and system dynamics. Do you know of any other free sources of case studies?

Coventry University Blog Project 2013

I started teaching the E-Marketing postgraduate module this semester. At Coventry University Business School, this is a core option module for the MSc Strategic Marketing Management, MA Marketing Management, MA Sport Marketing, MSc International Marketing, MSc Event Management, MA Sport Business Management and MA Advertising and Marketing course. I have a few MBA students as well.

Part of the assessment of this module is via a group coursework and as I was preparing for this module right before this semester, I had several fantastic ideas. However, in the end I decided to go with something which was based on my area of expertise and with the objective to equip the students with hands-on experience of using relevant social media platforms and tools and teaching them how to practically apply the e-marketing theories learnt in class. Thus was born the Coventry University Blog Project 2013.

The students were required to work in groups with each group creating a blog based on their areas of interest. They were then given a series of tasks to complete. Besides creating compelling content, the students had to promote their blogs - both offline and online, with special emphasis on social networks.   They were also required to keep track of their visitor statistics and post them weekly on a forum on the module Moodle page  (the  e-learning software platform used by Coventry University Business School). In the end, they will be required to hand in a 8000 word long report based on the project.

Several of the groups have done exceedingly well and I am quite proud of what we have achieved.

Given below is a list of the blogs which the students have created :

1. Inspiration for Travellers
2. Extravagant Globers
3. Take A Trip
4. Movie Mania M21
5. Cookery Budgetary
6. Everyday Solutions
7. Offers, Deals and Sales in Coventry
8. Facts About Marketing
9. Student-Assist
10. Beer Oh Beer
11. Conquering Coventry
12. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service
13. GLO Sensational Music
14. West Midland sport
15. Sports Light

Teaching in the New Academic Year

I will be teaching the following courses at Coventry Business School this academic year 2012 - 2013:

Under Graduate
203MKT - Marketing Management (used to be 262MKT)

Post Graduate
M05MKT - Marketing Planning
M21MKT  - E-Marketing

Previously I had taught:

M11MKT - Research Methods (Marketing)

363MKT - International Marketing Strategy and

267MKT - Principles of Marketing.


I start teaching a group of MBA Marketing students tomorrow.

Courses taught this term (January - April 2012)

This term, I am module leader for 3 courses including 2 Masters courses, namely:

PG Courses

M11MKT - Research Methods (Marketing) - New cohort. teaching for the second time.

M05MKT - Marketing Planning -Teaching for the first time.

UG Courses

262MKT - Applied Marketing Management - Teaching for the first time.

I am also taking two seminar classes for the UG course 267MKT - Principles of Marketing.

In the meantime, I am also supervising 10 undergraduate students with their dissertations as well as 5 MBA students.

When am I going to get the time to carry out research and write papers?

Academic promotions at Harvard

I recently participated in a seminar on HBS Case Teaching at the Warwick Business School, which was run by Grier Palmer who is Assistant Dean, Teaching and Learning at the school. He had recently gone to Harvard for a short course and was sharing his experiences.

One of the interesting things he shared among others, was an insight into promotions of academics at Harvard.

In most Universities, the most important criteria for academic promotions are publications. I have had several academics telling me that the secret to success in an academic career all boils down to how many papers you have published in high ranking journals.

One academic even told me that it does not even matter if your teaching "sucks" as long as you have regular publications in top ranking journals. Apparently, in Harvard it is slightly different. The most important criteria is getting publications out but over there they are more interested in case studies. Not surprising as case studies are a major source of income for the Harvard Business School and the University ultimately.

Another criteria were the student evaluations (so if you suck, you are out) which I guess should be the case as people pay huge sums of money to get into business schools and expect to receive a good teaching and learning experience.

 Finally, another important criteria for academic promotions was based on linkages with alumni and businesses. That does really make business sense. In other words, you really have to be an all rounder if you want to rise in Harvard. No wonder they are at top - at least among business schools.