American Crystal Sugar Company: Making Ethanol from Sugar Beets?

The objective of the case is to have students analyze policy factors regarding the possibility of using sugar beets as an ethanol feedstock. Jim Horvath, CEO of American Crystal Sugar Company, is preparing a presentation for his cooperative's annual meeting. Students are asked to consider various economic factors that affect the supply and demand for ethanol and how sugar beet ethanol is produced.     

Towards Total Quality Management in a Supportive Employment Workplace

When Total Quality Management (TQM) is being implemented in an organization, what are the implications if the workforce is disabled? BlindCraft, an organization owned by the former Strathclyde Regional Council, provides employment in a sheltered environment and made the decision to develop a system to improve the quality of their products. Their system is analysed from three perspectives: communication, culture and commitment. The authors highlight the importance of organizational culture and human resource policies in implementing TQM in any organization, and the role of front-line supervisors in ensuring the success of the present and any future system.     

Designing management control in hybrid organizations: The role of path creation and morphogenesis

Path-creating change in organizational form is proposed as an important element in achieving management control in hybrid organizations. Using case examples from large-scale projects in the architectural, engineering, and construction industry, as well as from joint ventures in the oil and gas industry, we highlight the role of mindfully synthesizing new organizational forms in the design of management control systems. A series of paradoxes is disclosed, in which attempts to achieve control through mimetic adoption of established management control techniques lead to reduced control. On the other hand, path-creating deviations from institutionalized practices, resulted in improved project and venture performance. It has been argued that the design of inter-organizational management control systems seeks to enable organizations to compete for resources and efficiency, and also to obtain institutional legitimacy. Institutional theory proposes that isomorphism permits organizations to obtain that legitimacy and explains their design. In this paper, we propose that path creation and morphogenesis, which deviates from isomorphism, is an additional consideration in explaining management control system design.     

Vertical Integration in Ecuador: The Case of Fresh-Cut Pineapples

Telesignos, a fruit producer and exporter in Guayaquil, Ecuador, was considering vertical integration into pre-cut pineapple production. Fruit processing skills, favorable image/reputation, as well as access to a new market could be obtained by linking with a company like Del Monte to produce fresh-cut fruit products under the Del Monte brand. The decision is whether it would make sense for Telesignos to invest in a fresh fruit processing facility in Ecuador to export fresh-cut pineapple to the United States.     

The Mountain States Lamb Cooperative: Can Vertical Integration Keep Lamb Producers from Being Fleeced?

The Mountain States Lamb Cooperative was formed in 2001 to ensure markets for fed lambs. The cooperative partnered with B. Rosen & Sons, Inc., a company with over fifty years of experience in the lamb industry. Together, they market approximately 750,000 lambs per year, or almost 25% of U.S. domestic lamb production. The case is designed for senior- and graduate-level courses in agribusiness management. The case describes how trade and exchange rates affect U.S. lamb industry competitiveness and how a firm's choice of strategy is dictated by global trade issues.     

Partnership to build research capacity

Today's nursing leaders are setting the stage for the next evolution--bringing together skilled clinicians and administrators with peers in education to create new approaches to leading the profession forward. Partnerships share goals, common purpose, mutual respect, willingness to negotiate and compromise, informed participation, information giving, and shared decision making. The shared practice academia effort between a public university and a private health care system situated in the island state of Hawai'i is described. The medical center and school of nursing pursued individual strategic efforts to build research capacity and used the opportunity to fund academic practice research projects. The mutual need and recognition of the high stakes involved, in concert with stable, committed leaders at all levels, were key to the early success of their efforts. Through the formal research partnership mechanism, a discrete focus was created for efforts and used to move to tactical, operational, and interpersonal integration in this relationship.