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Dark Side Case Competition

The CMS Division is pleased to sponsor the annual Dark Side Case Competition at the Academy of Management meeting. The competition is designed to encourage and acknowledge case writing that addresses the dark side of contemporary capitalism. The 2024 competition will be coordinated by Elina Riivari .

2024 Call for Dark Side Case Competition

If you are interested in using these cases for academic purposes, they are published as listed below: Raufflet, E., & Mills, A. J. (Eds.). 2009. The Dark Side: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business . Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing. Diochon, P.F., Raufflet, E. and Mills, A.J. (Eds.) 2013. The Dark Side 2: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business . Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing. Sauerbronn, F.F., Diochon, P.F., Raufflet, E. and Mills, A.J. (Eds.) 2018. The Dark Side 3: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business. . New York: Routledge.

Competition Winners:

2023 Manuela Lorenzo (FGV-EBAPE), Bianca Sá (FGV-EBAPE) and Ana Christina Celano (FGV-EBAPE) Rio de Janeiro, the Wonderful City, gets Smarter, but for whom?

2022 Mayah Moosajee (Wilfrid Laurier University) and Prescott Ensign (Lazaridis School of Business & Economics) Orange Shirt Day Commercialization: Further Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, and Appropriation of Culture and Heritage 2021 Lucia Oliveira (FGV-EBAPE), Bianca Sa (FGV-EBAPE) and Ana Celano (Faculdades Ibmec) Black Employees (Should) Matter 2020 Joint Winners (1) Caterina Bettin (Saint Mary's University) and Jean Helms Mills (Saint Mary's University) Makeup Naive? (2) Susanna Kultalahti (University of Vaasa) and Riitta Viitala (University of Vaasa) No Smoke without Fire? The Power Play Between Employee Autonomy and Employer Authority 2019 Stefanie Ruel (Concordia University) Rogue One: The Canadian Space Agency and Understanding the (Non) Inclusive Organization 2018 Debapratim Purkayastha (IBS Hyderabad), Syeda Maseeha Qumer (ICFAI University) and Vonod Babu Koti (IBS Business School) Ashely Madison Hacking and the Ethics of Hacktivism

2017 Syeda Maseeha Qumer (ICFAI), Debapratim Purkayastha (IBS Hyderabad) and Vijaya Narapareddy (University of Denver) A Sexual Harassment Complaint and the Fallout 2016 Joint Winners (1) Nimruji Jammulamadaka (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta), Biswatosh Saha (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta), Manisha Goswami (CPR-Namati) and Bharatkumar Kacharabhai Patel (MASS, CPR-Namati), Compromised Livelihoods in Vapi: What needs to be cleaned up in the Armpit of India?

(2) Nicole Spohr (FGV-EAESP), Amon Barros (FGV-EAESP) and Marcus Vinicius Peinado Gomes (FGV-EAESP), Whose Wealth is That? Discussing Human Rights and Mining in the Global South

2015 Lesley Symons (The Case for Women) and Debrapatim Purkayastha (IBS Hyderabad, India) What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander?

2014 Celine Louche (Audencia Nantes School of Management, France) and Nigel Roome (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), A 101 Second Clip to Create Change: Palm Oil Role Play

2013 Colm McLaughlin & Todd Bridgman, Apple and the Human Costs of Production

2012 Emmanuel Raufflet, Hydro-Québec and the Crees: The Great Whale 2 Project

2011 Susan Myrden and Kathy Sanderson, Kraft Foods Argentina - The H1N1 Disparity

2010 Sonya A. Grier (American University) and Guillaume D. Johnson (Witwatersrand University), "Alisha in Obesity-land”: Is Food Marketing the Mad Hatter?

2009 Todd Bridgman. (Victoria University of Wellington), Mercury Energy

2008 Mary Godwyn, Ph.D. (Babson College), Hugh Connerty and HOOTERS

2007 Joint Winner: Ann Lawerence, Google, Inc: “Figuring out how to deal with China.” Branzei, Oana and K.McKague, City Water Tanzania

2006 Emmanuel Raufflet, Yves Rocher in La Gacilly, France Monique Le Chêne (HEC Montreal), The Smell of Power

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2017

We generated a list of the 40 most popular Yale School of Management case studies in 2017 by combining data from our publishers, Google analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption. In compiling the list, we gave additional weight to usage outside Yale

Case topics represented on the list vary widely, but a number are drawn from the case team’s focus on healthcare, asset management, and sustainability. The cases also draw on Yale’s continued emphasis on corporate governance, ethics, and the role of business in state and society. Of note, nearly half of the most popular cases feature a woman as either the main protagonist or, in the case of raw cases where multiple characters take the place of a single protagonist, a major leader within the focal organization. While nearly a fourth of the cases were written in the past year, some of the most popular, including Cadbury and Design at Mayo, date from the early years of our program over a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds of the most popular cases were “raw” cases - Yale’s novel, web-based template which allows for a combination of text, documents, spreadsheets, and videos in a single case website.

Read on to learn more about the top 10 most popular cases followed by a complete list of the top 40 cases of 2017. A selection of the top 40 cases are available for purchase through our online store .

#1 - Coffee 2016

Faculty Supervision: Todd Cort

Coffee 2016 asks students to consider the coffee supply chain and generate ideas for what can be done to equalize returns across various stakeholders. The case draws a parallel between coffee and wine. Both beverages encourage connoisseurship, but only wine growers reap a premium for their efforts to ensure quality. The case describes the history of coffee production across the world, the rise of the “third wave” of coffee consumption in the developed world, the efforts of the Illy Company to help coffee growers, and the differences between “fair” trade and direct trade. Faculty have found the case provides a wide canvas to discuss supply chain issues, examine marketing practices, and encourage creative solutions to business problems.

#2 - AXA: Creating New Corporate Responsibility Metrics

Faculty Supervision: Todd Cort and David Bach

The case describes AXA’s corporate responsibility (CR) function. The company, a global leader in insurance and asset management, had distinguished itself in CR since formally establishing a CR unit in 2008. As the case opens, AXA’s CR unit is being moved from the marketing function to the strategy group occasioning a thorough review as to how CR should fit into AXA’s operations and strategy. Students are asked to identify CR issues of particular concern to the company, examine how addressing these issues would add value to the company, and then create metrics that would capture a business unit’s success or failure in addressing the concerns.

#3 - IBM Corporate Service Corps

Faculty Supervision: David Bach in cooperation with University of Ghana Business School and EGADE

The case considers IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC), a program that had become the largest pro bono consulting program in the world. The case describes the program’s triple-benefit: leadership training to the brightest young IBMers, brand recognition for IBM in emerging markets, and community improvement in the areas served by IBM’s host organizations. As the program entered its second decade in 2016, students are asked to consider how the program can be improved. The case allows faculty to lead a discussion about training, marketing in emerging economies, and various ways of providing social benefit. The case highlights the synergies as well as trade-offs between pursuing these triple benefits.

#4 - Cadbury: An Ethical Company Struggles to Insure the Integrity of Its Supply Chain

Faculty Supervision: Ira Millstein

The case describes revelations that the production of cocoa in the Côte d’Ivoire involved child slave labor. These stories hit Cadbury especially hard. Cadbury's culture had been deeply rooted in the religious traditions of the company's founders, and the organization had paid close attention to the welfare of its workers and its sourcing practices. The US Congress was considering legislation that would allow chocolate grown on certified plantations to be labeled “slave labor free,” painting the rest of the industry in a bad light. Chocolate producers had asked for time to rectify the situation, but the extension they negotiated was running out. Students are asked whether Cadbury should join with the industry to lobby for more time? What else could Cadbury do to ensure its supply chain was ethically managed?

#5 - 360 State Real Options

Faculty Supervision: Matthew Spiegel

In 2010 developer Bruce Becker (SOM ‘85) completed 360 State Street, a major new construction project in downtown New Haven. Just west of the apartment building, a 6,000-square-foot pocket of land from the original parcel remained undeveloped. Becker had a number of alternatives to consider in regards to the site. He also had no obligation to build. He could bide his time. But Becker worried about losing out on rents should he wait too long. Students are asked under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed?

#6 - Design at Mayo

Faculty Supervision: Rodrigo Canales and William Drentell

The case describes how the Mayo Clinic, one of the most prominent hospitals in the world, engaged designers and built a research institute, the Center for Innovation (CFI), to study the processes of healthcare provision. The case documents the many incremental innovations the designers were able to implement and the way designers learned to interact with physicians and vice-versa.

In 2010 there were questions about how the CFI would achieve its stated aspiration of “transformational change” in the healthcare field. Students are asked what would a major change in health care delivery look like? How should the CFI's impact be measured? Were the center's structure and processes appropriate for transformational change? Faculty have found this a great case to discuss institutional obstacles to innovation, the importance of culture in organizational change efforts, and the differences in types of innovation.

This case is freely available to the public.

#7 - Ant Financial

Faculty Supervision: K. Sudhir in cooperation with Renmin University of China School of Business

In 2015, Ant Financial’s MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) was looking to extend services to rural areas in China by providing small loans to farmers. Microloans have always been costly for financial institutions to offer to the unbanked (though important in development) but MYbank believed that fintech innovations such as using the internet to communicate with loan applicants and judge their credit worthiness would make the program sustainable. Students are asked whether MYbank could operate the program at scale? Would its big data and technical analysis provide an accurate measure of credit risk for loans to small customers? Could MYbank rely on its new credit-scoring system to reduce operating costs to make the program sustainable?

#8 - Business Leadership in South Africa’s 1994 Reforms

Faculty Supervision: Ian Shapiro

This case examines the role of business in South Africa's historic transition away from apartheid to popular sovereignty. The case provides a previously untold oral history of this key moment in world history, presenting extensive video interviews with business leaders who spearheaded behind-the-scenes negotiations between the African National Congress and the government. Faculty teaching the case have used the material to push students to consider business’s role in a divided society and ask: What factors led business leaders to act to push the country's future away from isolation toward a "high road" of participating in an increasingly globalized economy? What techniques and narratives did they use to keep the two sides talking and resolve the political impasse? And, if business leadership played an important role in the events in South Africa, could they take a similar role elsewhere?

#9 - Shake Shack IPO

Faculty Supervision: Jake Thomas and Geert Rouwenhorst

From an art project in a New York City park, Shake Shack developed a devoted fan base that greeted new Shake Shack locations with cheers and long lines. When Shake Shack went public on January 30, 2015, investors displayed a similar enthusiasm. Opening day investors bid up the $21 per share offering price by 118% to reach $45.90 at closing bell. By the end of May, investors were paying $92.86 per share. Students are asked if this price represented a realistic valuation of the enterprise and if not, what was Shake Shack truly worth? The case provides extensive information on Shake Shack’s marketing, competitors, operations and financials, allowing instructors to weave a wide variety of factors into a valuation of the company.

#10 - Searching for a Search Fund Structure

Faculty Supervision: AJ Wasserstein

This case considers how young entrepreneurs structure search funds to find businesses to take over. The case describes an MBA student who meets with a number of successful search fund entrepreneurs who have taken alternative routes to raising funds. The case considers the issues of partnering, soliciting funds vs. self-funding a search, and joining an incubator. The case provides a platform from which to discuss the pros and cons of various search fund structures.

40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2017

Click on the case title to learn more about the dilemma. A selection of our most popular cases are available for purchase via our online store .

Top 40 Case Studies of 2022-23

Hertz CEO Kathryn Marinello with CFO Jamere Jackson and other members of the executive team in 2017

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

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At the Critical Moment: Conditions and Prospects for Critical Management Studies

2000, Human Relations

We have recently witnessed a growing, if still arguably marginal, interest in `Critical Management Studies' (CMS). Our aim in this paper is to reflect upon the popularization of CMS; more specifically, we propose to examine the various factors that have contributed to its emergence, and to review the significance of its project. We start by exploring the conditions of possibility for CMS and point to a combination of political, institutional and epistemological trends. In the second part of the paper, we consider what constitutes `CMS' and suggest that whilst it draws upon a plurality of intellectual traditions, CMS is unified by an anti performative stance, and a commitment to (some form of) denaturalization and reflexivity. Finally, we articulate the polemics around which CMS politics have been contested, in particular we review the debates between neo-Marxism and post-structuralism, and discuss the issue of engagement with management practice.

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What happens when you try to engage with management practice as a critical management scholar by actually doing management? Although there have been calls for critical scholars to attempt such engagement, little is known about the practical challenges and learning that may be involved. This paper therefore provides a case study which details some of the experiences one of us had when working as a manager – while trying to remain true to his critical sensibilities. The story suggests that transforming management practice will be a constant struggle, and that the difficulties of achieving even small changes should not be underestimated. However change is not impossible. Following Foucault, we argue that critical perspectives, when engaged in particular ways, offer resources through which we might challenge the dominance of managerialist thinking on a practical level; at least in the long run.

SPECTRA: the Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Theory Archives, 2014

“Forms of Criticism in Philosophy and Science” D. Kubok (eds.), Folia Philosophica 34, ISSN 1231-0913, ss. 199-230, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice, 2015

The article presents characteristic features of the critical approach in management — Critical Management Studies — which keeps gaining popularity in the global management studies discourse. The authors point out the major paradigmatic assumptions of this line of inquiry, its intellectual sources and its critical tools, emphasizing in particular the role of education as the key to effective emancipation. The article closes with a criticism of CMS, which falls into line with the demand of the critical approach that the practice of scientific research should be accompanied by autocriticism.

The aim of the article is to present the most characteristic features of “Critical Management Studies”: reasons of its emergence and the main epistemological, normative and methodological assumptions.

Critical Management Studies declares itself as an emancipatory project (eg Fournier and Grey (2000) Spicer, Alvesson and Kärreman (2009: 539); one which can claim Frankfurt school critical theory as one of its intellectual forbears (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992). On closer examination these claims turn out to be rather more fragile than at first appears.

Our aim in this paper is to explore how one might approach the language of new capitalism working in a transdisciplinary way, bringing together New Sociology of Capitalism (Chiapello) and Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough). We focus upon ‘new management ideology’, and in particular on a recent book of a highly influential management ‘guru’ (Rosabeth Moss Kanter). The paper begins with a discussion of new management ideology based particularly upon the work of Boltanski and Chiapello (1999), followed by an outline of the version of Critical Discourse Analysis we draw upon, and an analysis of a number of extracts from the book. In the conclusion we consider the implications of the analysis for transdisciplinary research.

This paper has as its starting point calls for critical management studies (CMS) to engage more actively with the public. CMS has been relatively successful in gaining an institutional foothold within university business schools, but is criticised from within for a lack of influence outside the institution. We argue that while closer relationships with the public is assumed to be the next phase in the institutional development of CMS, strengthening its position within university business schools is likely only to exacerbate the present lack of public engagement, since this becomes an end in itself. Bigger and better conferences and a proliferation of journals dedicated to the publishing of CMS research takes us further from the everyday world of workplace politics. As part of creating a space in which we can think differently about CMS and the university, we draw on Foucault’s analysis of parrhesia, or fearless speech, which emphasises critique as a personal quality.

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