oikos Global Case Writing Competition Winners 2011
We are happy to announce the winners of the 2011 oikos Global Case Writing Competition. This year the first prize in corporate sustainability track goes to the case “Coke in the Cross Hairs: Water, India, and the University of Michigan” by Andrew Hoffman and Sarah Howie (University of Michigan, USA) and Grace Augustine (University of Oxford, UK). The first prize in social entrepreneurship track goes to the case “Better Place: Shifting Paradigms in the Automotive Industry” by Dror Etzion and Jeroen Struben (McGill University, Canada).
The Coke in the Cross Hairs case (1st prize, CS) is focused on events in 2005-2006 when University of Michigan stopped its contract with Coca-Cola because of Coke’s water management issues, bio-solid waste and pesticides in products in India and labour practices in Columbia. Further to the independent investigation, Coca-Cola was found to be in violation of the University of Michigan’s Vender Code of Conduct. The case further gives an account of Coca-Cola’s response to University of Michigan’s claims.
The Better Place case (1st prize, SE) outlines various aspects of the Better Place business model - a start-up based on the idea of the ecosystem built around electric vehicles, including a network of charging stations and battery swapping facilities. The case highlights the challenges of transforming the mature automotive industry by facilitating a paradigm shift in personal transportation models. This year’s first prize winner in the social entrepreneurship track provides new insights into the Better Place model as outlined in the last year’s winning case on Better Place (3rd prize). The 1st prize for the best case in social entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability tracks is CHF 5,000.
Second prize in the corporate sustainability track goes to the case “Burgerville: Sustainability and Sourcing in a QSR Supply Chain” by Darrell Brown, Phil Berko, Patrick Dedrick, Brie Hilliard and Joshua Pfleeger (Portland State University, USA). Readers will learn about challenges in sourcing local, fresh and sustainable produce for Burgerville, a quick-serve restaurant chain in the Northwest USA. More specifically, the case focuses on the challenge to source enough chicken for all Burgerville restaurants simultaneously complying with Burgerville’s strict environmental and social standards. Second prize in the social entrepreneurship track goes to the case “Ndlovu: The clock ticks” by Charles Corbett (UCLA Anderson School of Management, USA) and Sarang Deo (Kellogg School of Management, USA). The Ndlovu case discusses expansion plans of the health care group founded by a Dutch social entrepreneur in rural South Africa (Ndlovu Care Group) focusing on management structure and risks involved in replicating the initial business model in other countries. The prize money for the second place is CHF 2,000.
Third prize in the corporate sustainability track was awarded to Ashley Nowygrod, Brian Moss, Nathan Springer, Craig Cammarata and Jennifer Gough (University of Michigan, USA) for the case “Green Works: The Clorox Company Goes Green” which tracks the history of the Clorox Company and its approach to launching GreenWorks. In the social entrepreneurship track the third prize went to R. Scott Marshall, Lisa Peifer and Erin Ferrigno (Portland State University, USA) for the case “Tropical Salvage: From Recession to Expansion” which addresses the challenges of growing the company which uses only salvaged, or rediscovered, wood to build its line of furniture. The prize money for the third place is CHF 1,000.
Winning cases were selected out of nearly 50 submitted cases from four continents in a double-blind review by the oikos judging committee comprised of distinguished scholars from all around the world including Prof. Paul Shrivastava (Concordia, USA), Prof. Stephen Kobrin (Wharton, USA), Prof. Michael V. Russo (University of Oregon, USA), Prof. Johanna Mair (IESE Barcelona, Spain), Prof. Roberto Gutiérrez (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia), Prof. Patricia Márquez (University of San Diego, USA), Prof. Alex Nicholls (University of Oxford, UK) and other leading faculty. Inspection copies of the winning cases are available in the online oikos Case Collection.
If you are interested to learn about case writing from the authors of winning cases, attend our workshop on case writing at the Academy of Management Conference (San Antonio, Texas) on Saturday, August 13, 2011.