Take a look at entrepreneurship-related case studies from the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University.
Kiva vs MYC4-Business Model Innovation in Social Lending
Company: Kiva, MYC4
Publisher: INSEAD, ECCH
Call Number: 809-024-1
Year Published: 2009
The case describes the launch, growth and current challenges of two innovative ventures in the nascent social lending market. Kiva is based on good-will while MYC4 is based on market incentives. Which model is more likely to succeed?
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Which model is more likely to succeed?
Website where case study can be found
Living Homes
Company: Living Homes
Publisher: Oikos
Call Number: N/A
Year Published: 2008
Steve Glenn, a successful internet start-up entrepreneur, returned to his love of architecture and commitment to sustainability by creating a company that would provide signature, green, prefabricated homes to the “cultural creative” market. The case outlines the state of both the housing industry and the green building industry in 2007.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Can Living Homes merge prefabrication, green and high end in the housing market?
Website where case study can be found
IDEAAS and PSA: Replication in the Amazon
Company: IDEAAS and PSA
Publisher: Stanford
Call Number: E-264
Year Published: 2007
The case describes two social ventures' experience of collaborating with each other through a replication project. Each venture served different purposes: IDEAAS installed and operated alternative solar energy equipment in locations without access to Brazil's electricity grid, and Saude & Alegria educated populations in the Brazilian Amazon jungle on matters of health, environment conservation, and self-sustainable wealth generation. It highlights the core success factors that possibly led to the project's ultimate outcomes.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Students can debate and discuss as to what factors led to this success
Website where case study can be found
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam?E=65501&R=E264-PDF-ENG&co…
The Freeplay Energy Group and Foundation Company
Company: The Freeplay Energy Group
Publisher: IESE Business School
Call Number: 0-305-005
Year Published: 2004
The Freeplay Energy Group was founded in 1995 to produce wind up radios. It took its social responsibilities seriously from the beginning and in 1998 founded the Freeplay Foundation to enable the sustained delivery of radio information and education to the most vulnerable populations via self-powered radios. At the beginning of 2004 The Freeplay Energy Group and the Freeplay Foundation faced important decisions about their future to ensure the future growth and sustainability of both organizations.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How can FEG continue to expand and deal with lack of capital to introduce new products while balancing the interests of its Foundation?
Website where case study can be found
Fairmount Minerals
Company: Fairmount Minerals
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B11M059
Year Published: 2011
Fairmount Minerals, a producer of industrial sand, is an excellent example of a company that adopted a holistic approach to sustainable development. In 2005, CEO and sustainability champion, Chuck Fowler challenged the mining industry’s undesirable reputation by bringing together both shareholders and stakeholders around the three broad themes of people, planet and prosperity. Innovative practices were then embedded into every step along the value chain, from mine acquisition to end product to land restoration. Doing so did not only bring great benefit to the people and to the planet, but it also brought with it a competitive advantage to the company itself.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How can a company maintain its competitive advantage and personal growth as well as continue to meet to stakeholders’ needs while upholding its mission of best standards and collaborative efforts with other companies in the field?
Website where case study can be found
https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/fairmount-minerals/01t5c00000CwhXTAAZ
Ecovative Design LLC: A Biological Materials Startup
Company: Ecovative Design LLC
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B13M125
Year Published: 2013
Ecovative Designs (Ecovative), a start-up company in upstate New York, uses an innovative process to combine agricultural waste and mycelium (mushroom “roots”) to grow forms for use in a wide variety of applications, especially a protective packaging material. Not only does this new product replace the need for the environmentally harmful alternative, extruded polystyrene, but the production process is less energy intensive. It exemplifies the cradle-to-cradle design indicative of a sustainably embedded product and attractive to companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint. In 2013, the partners are considering whether to sign a contract with Sealed Air, one of the largest distributors of packaging materials in the world, but the deal would mean relinquishing control over the only profitable segment of their company. They are considering alternative growth strategies to find the one that fits best with their goal: to have the largest impact on the planet while remaining profitable.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How can a start-up’s radical sustainability innovation be scaled up (and with who) to meet both the founders’ needs for financial viability and to achieve significant environmental impact?
Website where case study can be found
https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/ecovative-design-llc-a-biological-mater…
A Model of Clean Energy Entrepreneurship in Africa: E+Co's Path to Scale
Company: E+Co
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 907M59
Year Published: 2009
The founder and executive director of E+Co faces the challenge of ten-fold growth and reviews the core parts of the company's innovative business model, the changes in the energy markets around the world, and the rationale for local solutions to energy scarcity and inefficiency. Also presented is a set of entrepreneurial growth strategies that preserve the core of the model - i.e., simultaneously tackling energy poverty and energy waste, and bringing people up the energy ladder with locally suitable and affordable solutions.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
Challenge of ten-fold growth and reviews the core parts of the company's innovative business model, the changes in the energy markets around the world, and the rationale for local solutions to energy scarcity and inefficiency.
Website where case study can be found
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam?E=59126&R=907M59-PDF-ENG&…
Clarke: Transformation for Environmental Sustainability
Company: Clarke
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B12C012
Year Published: 2012
Clarke, a pesticide-selling company, has a core business that is environmentally harmful by its very nature. Its journey to sustainability faced unique challenges even when innovation led to new green products, processes, technologies and business models. As such, its leadership had to cope with the overwhelming task of engaging both its employees and customers in the idea that sustainability can be effective and profitable.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How does a company overcome the challenges involved in acquiring the necessary buy-in from employees and customers who are skeptical about environmental sustainability as a potential driver of business strategy?
Website where case study can be found
https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/clarke-transformation-for-environmental…
Clarke: Transformation for Environmental Sustainability
Company: Clarke
Publisher: Ivey
Call Number: 9B12C012
Year Published: 2012
Clarke, a pesticide-selling company, has a core business that is environmentally harmful by its very nature. Its journey to sustainability faced unique challenges even when innovation led to new green products, processes, technologies and business models. As such, its leadership had to cope with the overwhelming task of engaging both its employees and customers in the idea that sustainability can be effective and profitable.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
How does a company overcome the challenges involved in acquiring the necessary buy-in from employees and customers who are skeptical about environmental sustainability as a potential driver of business strategy?
Website where case study can be found
https://www.iveypublishing.ca/s/product/clarke-transformation-for-environmental…
Mobility Innovation for a Better Place (A)
Company: Better Place
Publisher: INSEAD
Call Number: 809-040-1
Year Published: 2009
In 2007, Shai Agassi raised $200 million to launch Better Place. By deploying a network of charge spots, switch stations and systems that optimised the use of electric vehicles, the company had the potential to become a major player in the transport industry. To succeed, however, it had to overcome major implementation challenges, among them the need to achieve a minimum level of standardisation for the interface between vehicles and the recharging grid, and the continuous need to finance its market expansion. The case allows students to explore: (1) how an innovative business model has the potential to create new market space and reduce environmental impacts; (2) the emergence of cross-industry reconfigurations for a low-carbon economy; and (3) the commercial risks of sustainability-driven business in the realm of transportation.
What is the dilemma or tough decisions?
the commercial risks of sustainability-driven business in the realm of transportation.
Website where case study can be found
https://publishing.insead.edu/case/mobility-innovation-a-better-place