oikos Global Case Writing Competition Winners 2012

We are happy to announce the winners of the 2012 oikos Global Case Writing Competition. This year the first prize in the social entrepreneurship track goes to the case “TerraCycle” by Jan Lepoutre (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium), Stuart Read (IMD, Switzerland) and Philippe Margery (IMD, Switzerland). In the corporate sustainability track the first prize goes to Esther Hennchen and Josep Maria Lozano (ESADE Business School, Spain) for their case “Mind the Gap: Royal Dutch Shell’s Sustainability Agenda in Nigeria”.

 

The TerraCycle case (1^st prize, SE) tells the story of an entrepreneurial start-up company found by Tom Szaky, a Princeton freshman, with the idea of collecting waste and transforming it into affordable, high quality products. In 2006 Inc. Magazine named TerraCycle “The coolest little start-up in America” and Tom Szaky “The no. 1 CEO under thirty.” However, despite the world fame, financial stability of the company was still at risk in 2011.

 

The Royal Dutch Shell case (1^st prize, CS) explores Shell’s public responsibility strategies in Nigeria and challenges the role of MNCs, such as Shell, in countries with a local public responsibility gap. This case also explores implications for MNCs of working in controversial industry sectors (i.e. oil & gas) in the context of increasing demands for sustainability of business operations. First prize for the best case in the social entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability tracks is CHF 5,000.

 

Second prize in the CS track goes to the case by Jonathan Doh (Villanova University, USA), Ted London (William Davidson Institute/Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, USA) and Vasilia (Lea) Kilibarda (William Davidson Institute , University of Michigan, USA) – “Building and Scaling a Cross-Sector Partnership: Oxfam America and Swiss Re Empower Farmers in Ethiopia”. This case explores the challenges in scaling up a cross-sector collaborative project – HARITA (Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation) by Oxfam and Swiss Re in Ethiopia.

 

In the SE track the second prize is awarded to Imran Chowdhury (ESSEC Business School, France / Pace University, USA) and Thierry Sibieude (ESSEC Business School, France) for their case “World Toilet Organization: Leveraging Resources for Social Impact”. This case focuses on business model innovation at the World Toilet Organization (WTO), an innovative, Singapore-based social enterprise targeting sanitation problems such as the availability of clean toilets. The prize money for the second place in both tracks is CHF 2,000.

 

Third prize in the SE track goes to Emmanuel  Raufflet (HEC Montréal, Canada) and Frédéric Lavoie (CECI, Canada) for the case “Crediamigo: Partnering with VivaCred?” Crediamigo is Brazil’s largest microfinance institution that is interested in entering Rio de Janeiro’s microfinance market and considers two options: partnering with VivaCred, a small microcredit NGO which operates in Rio de Janeiro slums, or setting a new branch in Rio de Janeiro independently.

 

Third prize in the CS track is awarded to Ram Subramanian (Montclair State University, USA) for the case “Of Orangutans and Chainsaws: Cargill, Inc. Confronts The Rainforest Action Network’s Palm Oil Advocacy”. The case outlines the experience of Cargill, the United States-based agribusiness company, in responding to a public campaign by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), an environment and sustainability-focused NGO, to move to sustainable palm oil. Third prize in the social entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability tracks is CHF 1,000.

 

Finally, two runners-up in the CS track are “Walmart: Love, Earth” by  N. Craig Smith (INSEAD, France) and Robert J. Crawford (Independent Writer) and “Sustainable Development at PepsiCo” by Debapratim Purkayastha and Adapa Srinivasa Rao (IBS Hyderabad, India). In the SE track the following two cases became runners-up: “Bio-Vert: Green to What Limit?” by Catherine Bedard, Genevieve Grainger and Raymond Paquin (Concordia University, Canada) and “Nuru Energy” by Filipe Santos and Anne-Marie Carrick-Cagna (INSEAD, France).

 

Winning cases were selected in a double-blind review process by the oikos judging committee comprised of distinguished scholars from all around the world including Magali Delmas (University of California at Los Angeles, USA), Andrew J. Hoffman (University of Michigan, USA), Paul Shrivastava (Concordia, USA), Christian Seelos (IESE Barcelona, Spain), Gabriel Berger (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina), Francesco Perrini (Bocconi University, Italy) and other leading faculty.

 

This year we have also introduced an award for the best review. In the CS track the Best Reviewer Award goes to Renato Orsato (Academic Director at the Centre for Sustainability Studies (Gvces) at Getúlio Vargas Foundation / FGV S. Paulo, Brazil). The Best Reviewer Award in the SE track goes to Roberto Gutiérrez (University de los Andes, Columbia).

 

Inspection copies of the winning and finalist cases are available in the online oikos Case Collection.

 

If you are interested to learn the skill of case writing, attend our workshop on case writing at the Academy of Management conference in Boston (USA) on 3 August, and a workshop on developing teaching notes and using teaching cases in the classroom at the GRONEN conference in Marseille (France) on 28 June.