International Institutional Case Writing: the Case of St

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL CASE WRITING: THE CASE OF ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Sergei A. Starov Igor V. Gladkikh Elena E. Rasha St. Petersburg University Graduate School of Management ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA William H. Coyle Babson College BABSON PARK, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.

Abstract

The continuing globalization of business and the globalization of business education require teaching materials transcending country boundaries. Case studies co-authored by writers from several countries have the potential of widespread application and use. Experience at the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg University (Russia), shows that institutional cooperation on joint case writing projects with foreign universities does work and can yield results.

KEY WORDS : institutional case writing cooperation, case studies as a global product, international co-authorship in case development

CHALLENGES OF CASE WRITING AND TEACHING: GSOM’s INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

The continuing trend toward Global Business and the globalization of business education require teaching materials transcending country boundaries. The classroom material should address different issues and challenges of the globalization of business and it should be tailored to the needs of audiences in different countries. Saee [2005] wrote that “managers operating within the global economy face major challenges, which emanate from differing political, social, legal, technological, economic, and more importantly, cross-cultural dimensions”. Effective intercultural communication becomes the key indicator of managerial competence within the global economy in many academic and professional communities. It is highly important to write cases that help business students develop intercultural competences for working in a global economy. Case writers at the Graduate School of Management (GSOM) at St. Petersburg State University, explore new opportunities for innovation through international cooperation in case development. While international case writing cooperation is not yet a well-developed practice, joint scientific research has long been the norm. Case collections at Harvard University, INSEAD, Ivey School of Business, Darden and IMD belong to their Business Schools. The authors believe that this form of institutional foot print limits the ability to write quality case studies with a global perspective. Whereas cases may have great potential for being disseminated internationally, the vision of case writers is always limited by their personal experience and by practices at their place of employment. Furthermore, case writers tend to write cases for audiences they know. It is the view of the authors that 16 International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1 case studies are written primarily to shift the burden of explaining absolutely every detail of business development in a country from the professor to the student. The more diverse case audiences are, the more likely they lack understanding of the nuances of the economic environment of a country. Some of the information provided in a case may simply be beyond the level of understanding of students from other countries. Following is a list of cases developed by GSOM case writers cooperating with case writers from several countries.

TABLE 1 CASES DEVELOPED BY GSOM PROFESSORS IN CO-AUTHORSHIP WITH COLLEAGUES FROM OTHER SCHOOLS

Institution of Authors Case Title Co-author

Gladkikh I.V. Look out Mickey Mouse, The Gladkikh, I. Bertolon School Russian Smeshariki are going to the market / Starov, S. I.V. Gladkikh, S.A. Starov, E. Desmarais, G. of Business, Desmarais E. Meirovich // The CASE Journal. - Volume 7, Salem University Meirovich G. Issue 2. - 2011 - P. 12-34. Cherenkov V.I., Ellis, J., Gladkikh I.V. Pulse Systems of St. Petersburg: Russian Hi-Techs Babson College Gladkikh, I. are Coming / V.I.Cherenkov, J. Ellis, I.V. Cherenkov, V. Gladkikh // International Journal of Case Ellis, J. Method Research & Application (IJCRA) - March, 2010. - Volume XXII, Issue No. 1. - P. 58-71. Andreeva T.E. Knowledge Management College of Challenges in the Rakurs Company (Case) / Business Andreeva, T. T.E. Andreeva, M. Zack. - European Case Administration, Zack, M. Clearing House (ecch). – 2010. - 910-004-1. Northeastern – pp. 12. University

Gladkikh I.V.Asahi Beer Enters the Russian Gladkikh I. Babson College Market (Case) / I. V. Gladkikh, S. A. Starov, Starov S. K.Matsuno. - The European Case Clearing Matsuno, K. House (ecch). 2010

Shirokova G.V. Dve Palochki: A Non- Japanese Restaurant of Japanese Cuisine Babson College Shirokova G., (Case) / G.V. Shirokova, W. Coyle. - Coyle, W. European Case Clearing House (ecch). - 2009. - 309-261-1. - p.p. 21 Shirokova G.V. The Untsiya Company: Bertolon School Shirokova, G. Business Development in Russia / G.V. of Business, Vega, G. Shirokova, G. Vega // The CASE Journal. - Salem University Volume 6, Issue 1. - 2009 - P. 57-80. Gladkikh I.V. Battery Energy Drink: Gladkikh, I. Successful Start, What’s Next? (Case) / Babson College Starov, S. I.V.Gladkikh, S.A. Starov, R.G. Kopp. - Kopp, R. European Case Clearing House (ecch). – 2007. - 507-188-1. – pp. 42.

International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1 17

As Table 1 indicates, GSOM has extensive experience in creating case studies jointly written with authors from its international partner institutions. The process of writing a case with a professor from a partner institution has provided benefits to GSOM and its partners as well as the co-authors involved in the case. At the institutional level, the cases act as a way of broadening the institutional relationships between the partners. The joint case writing provides another level of linkage between the institutions. For the individual professors who are co-authors, it broadens their professional network. The co-authored case provides an additional publication and also may provide a new avenue for publication for one or more of the authors. Finally, in the process of writing and then testing the case in their respective classes, the professors and the institutions can learn from each other about how they teach and how their students learn. There is an opportunity for each institution involved to learn the best practices of the other institutions.

SYNERGY OF INTERNATIONAL CASE WRITING CO-AUTHORSHIP

As noted in Table 1, the joint cases are all with GSOM and partner institutions in the United States. Also applicable if they were from Western European universities, the cases provide a synergistic effect when written by authors from different countries and taught to students from different countries. The Russian business environment is very different from a western business environment. This makes a jointly-written case valuable to both a Russian and a western audience because the students learn and work in different environments. A case written by just a Russian professor or just a western professor may very well seem disjointed and not applicable to a student audience from the other location. The synergy occurs through the incorporation of the attributes previously noted by Saee, such that the co-authors through writing the case bridge the educational, cultural, political and business differences that exist between Russia and western business environments. For example, Western students want to learn about Russia and the Russian business environment. However, Western students do not understand the uniqueness of the Russian business environment and possibly, nor does their Western professor. A case written by a Russian professor about a Russian company will most likely be addressed to a Russian audience. It is then likely that in the case and the teaching note, fundamental issues that are inherent in the Russian business environment will be assumed to be known by the Russian author. Very important nuances and key institutional and cultural frameworks will be lost on a Western audience. The same holds true for Russian students wanting to learn about Western business practices. There is a large body of cases available that are based on Western companies in a Western environment and written by Western professors. The Russian student may be more familiar with Western business practices than a Western student knows of Russian business practices, but still the author and the case will assume that fundamental Western business practices are known by the student. In writing an internationally co-authored case, the disjointed nature of the case can be mitigated. The Western and Russian co-author is sensitive to the nuances of their own environment and their own disciplines within that environment. As the case is written, those differences are acknowledged and incorporated into the case in a synergistic way. Differences in the culture, politics and business environment of countries is made explicit and the implications of those differences provide a deeper learning environment for the students. This adds value to all four types of cases: a case about a Russian company operating in Russia; a case about a Western company, operating in the West; a case about a Russian company wanting to do business in the West; and a case about a Western company wanting to do business in Russia. This synergy holds true at a macro and a micro level within a case. At the macro level, international co-authored cases provide students the opportunity to learn about a different economic and business environment. Before a student begins to get involved in the details of the company which the case is based on, the students must understand the context in which this company is doing business. For the co- author whose country this case is about, they can provide the macro-level information, where the nature and extent of that information is guided by the co-author from the other country, who is sensitive to the information their students need but may be unaware of. At the micro-level, especially as it refers to specific academic disciplines, in writing the case the professors will learn that different rules or laws apply that make their disciplines different in some way and those differences can be highlighted in the case. 18 International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1

What is completed is a robust case, sensitive to the context and environment of the students and to the company that is the subject of the case. A well written internationally co-authored case is one that teaches the students not only about aspects of academic disciplines, but also teaches students about differences between and among countries. Furthermore, a well written teaching note allows professors who may never have been to one or more of the countries to be able to teach the case effectively because the unique contextual environment in the case is made clear to the professor. Cases can also benefit from the institutional expertise that each institution has. For instance, in the case of GSOM-Babson jointly written cases, Babson is recognized as a world leader in entrepreneurship education. Babson professors can bring this expertise into the case, especially when working with GSOM, because Russia does not have a history of entrepreneurship education and development. An example where an internationally co-authored case has advantages would be if the case study discussion included a PEST analysis. The PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added the component “Legal” and rearranged PEST into the mnemonic SLEPT; inserting Environmental factors expanded it to PESTEL or PESTLE. It is a part of the external analysis within a strategic analysis or market research. It provides an overview of different macroenvironmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position and potential, as well as guidelines for operations. The use of PEST analysis can help consider characteristics of the environment, which influences management decisions in one country or another. All of these elements can be very useful in a case discussion. However if the students do not have the proper contextual knowledge of a country that they are unfamiliar with, the analysis will be at best incomplete and most likely be incorrect. That most likely will not be the students’ fault. The author(s) of a case must be sensitive to the knowledge base that the students bring into the classroom. For the case to be an effective learning tool, the information within the case must match the students’ contextual knowledge surrounding the company in the case. This is where an international co-author who is familiar with these students can write the case with their co-author(s) that provides for all the additional information needed to make the case effective. For example, in analyzing the GSOM case study “Diplomat Vodka Makes a Break for Premium Class” in the Master of International Business (MIB) program, international students from Europe offered a brand promotion in the Russian market using marketing communications tools. However these tools were prohibited by the laws of the Russian Federation. The international GSOM students offered a very good solution except it was illegal in Russia. An internationally co-authored case would be much more likely to alert the students to this peculiarity in Russian law and therefore it would have made them dismiss perhaps a more familiar solution and have to apply a more Russian solution. This example illustrates another opportunity that an internationally co-authored case presents. The international GSOM students developed an inappropriate solution because their solution was illegal in Russia. What if that solution was an acceptable or even optimal solution except for the one technicality that it was illegal in Russia? Because it was illegal, the Russian GSOM students would have been very unlikely to have considered that solution. Furthermore, a Russian professor who is not a co-author would also most likely never engage in a discussion of this illegal solution. But the authors can alert professors who are teaching the case outside of Russia, that this solution is not illegal and thus provides another international learning experience for Russian students. Therefore, given the knowledge of the international co-authors, different solutions can be presented that may work in different businesses, legal or cultural settings. There are examples of case projects that were coordinated institutionally, that is not only on the level of private initiatives between or among individual professors. For instance, the Babson-GSOM institutional relationship explicitly promotes the idea of joint case writing. This not only makes it easier for professors from the two institutions to connect, it can initiate connections that otherwise never would have occurred. To make such an arrangement work, the joint case writing initiative must be promoted to each institution’s faculty and then each institution must have a liaison for the faculty to go to and initiate the process. The liaison brings potential projects to the attention of the other institution and then a sort of matchmaking occurs as projects are presented and faculty are introduced. By leveraging the institutional relationship, it broadens the opportunities and knowledge of each institution’s faculty. Each individual faculty member has limited possibilities to learn about companies outside their own sphere. By combining International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1 19 the business contacts and case possibilities with each faculty, much more information can be obtained, such as research on different national markets can be accessed, interviews with managers from different countries within a particular organization, and differences and similarities in the business environment can be learned and presented to their students. By combining these features, the authors of a case give students the opportunity to form a more global vision of the company that the case is about. For example, when writing a case study on the Valio Dairy Company (the leading dairy company in Finland) together with partners from the Helsinki School of Economics, the Finnish co-authors provided the opportunity to interview the CEO of Valio, LLC, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since January 1, 2002, Valio, LLC, has been the only importer of Valio products to Russia. The information obtained revealed a vision of the company's management to enhance the competitiveness of their company in the Russian market of processed cheese. This led to a much richer case and introduced in detail such issues as strategic marketing and the rebranding of the Valio brand. The Valio brand has been present in the Russian market of processed cheese since 1956, but gradually began to lose its market share under pressure from foreign competitors and local producers. Combining the challenges faced by the Russian subsidiary in conjunction with the corporate strategy from Finland made for a much better case and greater learning opportunity for the students. The Valio case provides an example of where international co-authorship can be especially useful when the subject of the case is a multinational company. Cases based on the experiences of a multinational company operating in different countries allow students to use comparative analysis. This provides several advantages. First, the comparative method allows one to overcome ethnocentrism . Ethnocentrism in research results, according to Robert Rose, either in "false particularization", i.e. representation of the special exclusiveness of the country, or in "false universalism", where the theory created by the experience of one country, is given the universal nature excluding national and historical context. The international co-authored case forces students to leave the comfort zone of their own country with its own business environment and culture and possibly realize that what works in their country may not work in another because of a whole range of issues. Second, the comparative method has practical importance. By taking into account the experience of others, one can get the most appropriate and effective solutions and avoid mistakes in managerial decisions. A comparative study enables students to learn from the valuable experience of foreign companies. There were many cases in Russia, when the experience of international companies was directly copied by Russian companies, without assessing their capacity "of transplantation and implantation” in the national business system. Finally, one should pay attention to the prognostic significance of the comparative method. A comparative approach helps to anticipate the possible outcomes of management decisions, imposed by the factual content of the case. That includes consideration of what is good for the local company versus what is good for the entire multinational corporation. Often what is best for one is not best for the other.

BEST PRACTICE, METHODOLOGY AND INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES OF INTERNATIONAL CASE WRITING CO-AUTHORSHIP

One of the joint projects conducted by GSOM and Babson College is the case of the Japanese beer brand Asahi. The project started when Professor Ken Matsuno, the Marketing Department Chair at Babson College, came to the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University, and met with his co-authors. By that time GSOM professors Igor Gladkikh and Sergei Starov had already written a draft case, based on field research at the Baltika Breweries, which manufactured and sold licensed Asahi beer in Russia. The international team agreed to continue working on the case jointly, including developing teaching notes and adding some international data. In 2011, professors from the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University, and Babson College, co-authored the case writing project on the internationally licensed Asahi beer brand. This example of co-authorship could be considered as best practice in developing intercultural communication competence among professors, who would later share their experience in class when teaching the case. Before taking the case to class, the professors discussed possible communication failures, which international students might encounter, where they either eliminated the disparities or provided explanations. The Babson co-author added some information on the brand based on information received from Japan and the most recent beer consumption data (country by country data). Consequently, the co-authors continued working on the 20 International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1 teaching notes and discussed such issues as the country of origin factor (COF) issue, alternative product positioning, marketing strategy formulation, why global expansion was important for Asahi, what should be the performance goal for Asahi in Russia. Upon completion, the case was tested in class at Babson and GSOM, approved of by Baltika Breweries in Russia, as well as the Asahi office in Japan, and sent to ECCH for registration, so that professors worldwide could use this international case in class. Mutually beneficial cooperation in joint case writing is clear for both schools. It was impossible to get all the information using the networks of only one school. The authors had the opportunity to reach Asahi senior management in Japan (through the Baltic Breweries based in St. Petersburg, Russia, they approached the top management, and conducted an interview via email with senior management and received a case release), while the Babson College professor worked with the original text in Japanese and researched the Asahi advertising and promotion worldwide, via the Japanese business community, and then wrote the history of the brand in Japan. Thus, two schools joined together and greatly enhanced their capabilities. The Russian case authors made the analysis of the Russian market, which was not available to their American colleagues, and those, in turn, conducted the analysis of the US market. Other examples of cooperation between GSOM and international business schools in case writing include publishing cases in joint case collections (Texas A&M University, Salem University), and publication in journals (Asian Case Research Journal, The CASE Journal). (See Table 1) Experience shows that there is no need to jointly participate in all phases of writing the case study. For example, co-authors may not be able to jointly participate in company interviews. However it is necessary to jointly define the concept of the case study, its plot, structure and content of questions or areas of discussion. For example, when writing a case study on the Battery Energy Drink with Professor Robert Kopp from Babson College, the authors had a long debate about identifying the central problem of the case, which stems from the fact that Baltika Breweries was manufacturing products not related to its core business, i.e. it manufactured the energy drink Battery licensed by the Finnish company Sinebruhoff. The problem was largely based on the fact that the case study co-authors often specialize in teaching different functional disciplines within the same general subject (such as strategic management, on the one hand, and marketing, on the other hand), and it is sometimes difficult for them to come to a general consensus because they see the same problem from different angles. However what appears to be a problem may also be strength. International co-authored cases not only bring synergy through the examination of multiple countries but it may also provide synergies among different academic disciplines. In the Battery Energy Drink case, strategic management professors and a marketing professor provided students with a multi-country, multi-disciplinary integrated case. International co-authored cases have three main processes: adequate planning, effective knowledge sharing and operational information among co-authors, and ongoing project coordination. Priorities to control the processes should be established at the beginning of the case writing project. The difficulties which arise in the course of such interaction are not of a compelling character but still must be dealt with. The difficulties can be summarized into two main challenges. The first challenge is the mentality of case authors. Awareness of their uniqueness and exclusiveness is characteristic of intellectuals. Moreover, co-authors can sometimes be concerned by receiving too little credit for their joint work. In this era of globalization it is easier to overcome such concerns in a joint research work, than in writing teaching materials. The second challenge is organizational complexity. Henry Ford once said that "getting together is the beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is a success." Judging by the experience of the authors of this paper, the prolongation of the process of writing and testing a case study is well understood by the authors. It is much more difficult to provide sufficient and timely funding for each party. Such issues should be addressed early in the process and resolved by each institution. The element of risk would always be present, but in case of creating a high quality product, such issues are likely to be solved. A special organizational factor that may cause complications is the lack of experience in simultaneous placement of cases in two or more university case collections. The collection of case studies at ECCH (www.ecch.com) comprises case collections of world business schools. The electronic case data base www.case-center.ru, established by the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University, comprises the national collection of cases in Russian. However, this collection still does not have a heading or classification that features simultaneous membership in two or more collections of universities. The main direction of establishing and maintaining university collections will be further pursued. But this International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1 21 does not preclude mutual recognition of new global products, created as a result of the collaboration of several schools. The authors of current paper invite all interested parties to think about it. The practice of sharing intellectual property can and should be improved upon.

RUSSIAN CASE STUDIES CENTER www.case-center.ru , AS THE BASIS FOR CREATING AND DISSEMINATING NEW KNOWLEDGE AT AN INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL

The GSOM case collection is created in Russian and English depending on the programs they are aimed at. Moreover, most cases have international potential, including cases tested on programs conducted in English for international students. All cases are listed in the Russian Case Studies Center www.case-center.ru data base, and if a case written in Russian has international potential (which is determined by the Teaching Council), then it is translated into English, tested in class with the participation of international students at GSOM, edited and published either with the participation of international partners (or not) in international journals and electronic data bases. In 2007, GSOM initiated the project "Russian Case Studies Center". GSOM was the first institution in Russia that created the national case teachers network through the establishment of the Russian Case Studies Center www.case-center.ru . The network inspires the development of new course-tailored teaching materials for active learning and makes it a well working mechanism which takes into account customized programs needs, modern trends and business development in Russia. The Russian Case Studies Center is an electronic library of business case studies used in programs of business education at various levels. The data base includes case studies written in Russia mostly on the basis of field research in Russian companies, as well as international companies based in Russia. The project is aimed at promoting business education by expanding the access to teachers of business disciplines to the teaching materials, developed by case writers from different universities and educational centers in Russia, and published in professional journals. The project involves 20 Russian universities and business media, including Harvard Business Review Russia, Vedomosti, The Secret of the Firm, E-Perspectiva.ru, among others. The database is comprised of 226 cases, 165 cases out of them were developed by GSOM faculty. In 2010 alone 50 finalized cases were placed in the database. The number of member schools (which signed a License Agreement) is 16 and the number of registered individuals is more than 100 (with three new business schools joining the project in 2011). The expanded geography of GSOM students (on the undergraduate, graduate and Executive MBA level) required new methods of providing relevant teaching materials in a relevant format, i.e. course- tailored case studies in electronic format, distributed via the electronic case data base. The Russian Case Studies Center helps meet the demand for new cases in class among professors of business disciplines all over Russia and CIS countries, establishes an on-going system of advanced training for professors, encourages them to write cases and renders administrative support. Thus, the electronic case data base creates a basis for collecting, classifying and distributing new knowledge.

CONCLUSION

In the era of globalization and interconnectivity of businesses throughout the world, business students must be prepared for this reality. GSOM as a business school with a global vision faces the challenges of developing teaching materials that would be suitable for teaching both its international and Russian students to prepare them for the global business environment they are entering. The creation of new case studies, globally based and globally written are an integral part of providing a world-class education. Such cases are not only created to help educate GSOM students and the students of our international partners, but also they are to help professors of management worldwide. GSOM case writers cooperate with co-authors from other countries and jointly develop cases of a new type, i.e. global case studies that are multi-disciplinary, which would be recognized internationally and distributed worldwide. The institutional support from business schools is important in this endeavor, because case centers provide support to case writers in multiple areas such as networking, publishing cases, and distributing cases via electronic data bases. The synergy effect of such cooperation is clear for all stakeholders: students, professors, and business executives. 22 International Journal of Case Method Research & Application (2012) XXIV, 1

REFERENCES

Saee, John. Managing Organizations in a Global Economy: An Intercultural Perspective (Thomson South-Western, 2005).