December 6, 2022. Shanghai – On December 5-6, the CEIBS Case Center held the second Case Master Development Camp of 2022, employing a hybrid model at CEIBS Shanghai Campus that allowed for both online and offline participation. A total of 139 teachers from 81 schools and universities across China participated in the event.

In his welcome speech, CEIBS Case Center Director and Professor of Accounting Chen Shimin provided a briefing on case teaching and development at CEIBS while updating participants on the development of the Global Platform of China Cases (ChinaCases.Org). CEIBS develops some 100 cases per year, which are used not only at CEIBS but also by some of the world’s most prestigious business schools. Harvard Business Publishing’s case library has included some 80 CEIBS cases to date, while 140 have been included by Ivey Publishing and 380 by the Case Centre.

While running the Global Contest for the Best China-focused Cases, ChinaCases.Org has established strategic partnerships with numerous leading institutions. It now houses more than 2,400 high-quality cases, serving 4,700 teachers from 55 schools and universities in China, and continues to reach more institutions through multi-channel promotions. Annual training programmes such as the Case Master Development Camp and the Case Co-creation Community provide teachers with a platform for communication and learning, further bolstering case teaching and development efforts.

During the two-day event, CEIBS faculty members, including Professor of Entrepreneurship Wang Taiyuan, Professor of Marketing Zhou Dongsheng, Professor of Accounting Chen Shimin, and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship Daniel Chng, along with CEIBS Case Development Team Leader Dr. Zhao Liman, shared their wealth of experience on designing, developing and organizing case studies across various fields.

Prof. Wang demonstrated the SMILE (Story, Model, Impact, Logic & Engaged) model for classroom case teaching using a short case study on the transformation of a Spanish restaurant. He then conducted sample classes using the Harvard case "S’well: The Mass Market Decision” and his own case “Transsion Holdings: Leveraging Disruption in Emerging Markets". The classes involved participants in designing a case teaching plan for EMBA students that employs the SMILE model. Under his guidance, participants gained first-hand experience of how to effectively organize case teaching.

Prof. Zhou showcased the case teaching process with his two case studies, "Hope Noah: Is All-Inclusive Pricing an Effective Strategy for the Medical Tourism Industry?" and "Orange Dental: Where Kids Enjoy Dentistry." Well-structured and subject-focused, both case studies require students to make crucial decisions as they navigate dilemmas. Using "Yes or No" questions from the different decision-making stages, Prof. Zhou guided participants in observing each decision-making point from multiple perspectives to provide a complete picture of how to organize a class with open-ended questions. The course culminated with appearances by the founders of the two case companies, whose insights further deepened participants’ understanding of the case subjects and their decisions.

Using the case teaching method, Prof. Chen led participants in identifying the differences between corporate strategies and business models through three financial statements. He also shared his experience of case teaching, development, and reviews while analysing the features of inductive and deductive methods of case teaching. He also provided valuable suggestions on case development and publication based on ChinaCases.Org’s selection criteria.

Drawing on his personal experiences in teaching and developing cases, Prof. Chng made comparisons between business schools in the East and West regarding the preferences of faculty and students for case studies. He also analyzed the difficulties that different case studies may have during the teaching process, while assisting the audience in exploring the connection between case development and academic research.

In her presentation, Dr. Zhao Liman cited two award-winning cases from the Global Contest for the Best China-focused Cases, namely, "Chasm Security: Facing the Technology Start-up’s Dilemmas" and "Daddy Lab: A Chinese Social Enterprise’s Dilemma." She detailed how she applied fast and slow thinking as well as various techniques throughout the case development process. This spanned selecting the case topic, finding and communicating with the target company, designing questions for discussion, and employing induction and deduction. In addition, she elaborated on the three pairs of relationships between case development and teaching.

 

 

 

 Wang Yongjian   Guangdong University of Technology

 

"Case teaching is not about telling the story of a company, but about engaging students through a well-designed process and working with them to generalize relevant knowledge from the case study."

 

 

 

 Li Sifei   Beijing Foreign Studies University

 

"The camp provided a lot of valuable insights into case teaching and development. It allowed me to gain a clearer understanding of the essentials and key components of case teaching, sharpen my skills in scheduling and organizing classes, broaden my thinking on case writing, and instilled in me a holistic view of practice/problem-oriented case development."

 

 

 

 Zhang Ke   Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance

 

"First, it provided an explicit explanation of case teaching and development, and better prepared us for applying this in practice. Second, it delivered feasible plans and hands-on methods for case teaching. Third, it detailed the nature and significance of case teaching and development from multiple perspectives, paving the way for even a green hand to get on board based on his or her individual situation. Participating in the camp has been a great honour, and I would like to extend many thanks to CEIBS!"

 

Since 2016, CEIBS has organized 20 classes under the Case Master Development Camp initiative, attracting nearly 1,400 teachers from 313 schools and universities across more than 20 countries and regions around the world. In the future, the CEIBS Case Center will organize more training on case teaching to further promote the teaching and development of China-themed cases.

Writer：Pan Bin  Editor：Michael Donald Thede