I Never Thought I Would End Up In Prison: White Collar Dilemmas

This case allows students to hear the stories of convicted white collar prisoners from Germany and the United States and learn lessons from their mistakes. Prisoners provide details of their crimes, the resulting prison time, as well as life lessons they feel business ethics students should learn. Students are encouraged to identify anything they, themselves, might be doing that would put them on the path of illegal behavior and to consider mechanisms they can implement to avoid breaking laws. The case can be used in many courses, including Business Ethics, Managerial Accounting, Organizational Behavior, and Corporate Finance

Student Attendance At Campus Sporting Events: How Can We Get Them There?

College student attendance at campus sporting events has been declining for a number of years with administrators looking for ways to reverse that trend.  There are multiple reasons for the declining attendance and a multitude of possible solutions have been proposed. This case examines the situation for the football program at one mid-sized university, providing data from a representative cross section of the student population. Readers are tasked with making recommendations based on the data and to describe methods of evaluating the success of any changes

How Young Is Too Young: Marketing To The Tween Generation

A girl yanks on a pair of hipster jeans.  Her mother is aghast, “You can’t go to school looking like that,” the mother says sternly.  The mom then pulls the pants lower, proving she is hip to the current styles

The Potential Impact of Federal Laws On State Water Supplies

States have long held the exclusive right to allocate their surface and groundwater supplies absent some express federal authority, usually via a contract with a federal agency for stored water in a federally sponsored and funded project. Over time, however, an emphasis on federal involvement has led to scrutiny of projects where there are no federal dollars being expended—only federal permits needed to implement projects by the states. This federal involvement can sometimes have extremely costly impacts to states, effectively creating an invisible dam of laws and regulations under the guise of protecting the environment. This paper will explore a few of those actions that are currently being experienced in the arid southwest where new reservoirs are needed to support a growing population and a thirst for water that cannot be quenched by conservation alone

Should I Give Grandma An iPod For Christmas? Music Consumption Behavior In The Digital Age

Ryan has to help an aspiring tribute artist learn how to best market his music to the elderly market. He does so by collecting data via internet research, sales analysis, field observation, and a survey. The case requires students to evaluate the quality of the research conducted and then provide marketing direction.  The case could be used in the following undergraduate or graduate courses:  marketing research, principles of marketing, marketing strategy, consumer behavior

Longevity Record for a Wild Allegheny Woodrat (Neotama magister) in West Virginia

The Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) is found throughout much of the central and southern Appalachians and adjacent portions of the Interior Highlands. Allegheny woodrats have declined in the northern portions of their range and are state-listed as threatened, endangered or sensitive species of concern in every state where they occur. Until recently, biologists have had to rely on biological data collected from the closely related eastern woodrat (N. floridana) because of limited research on the Allegheny woodrat. We have been studying the ecology and natural history of woodrats in Virginia and West Virginia since 1990. On 8 August 1997 we caught and ear-tagged a juvenile female woodrat. She was caught a total of 24 times in the same outcrop from 1997 through 2002. A conservative estimate of her age on 25 January 2002 was 1,734 days or 57.8 months. This extends the record longevity for a wild Allegheny woodrat by 70 days or 2.3 months. Regardless, her known time alive (from first capture to last) of 1,630 days still surpasses previous estimates of longevity for the Allegheny woodrat

Payday Lending: Perfunctory Or Predatory?

Payday lenders are becoming more common across America as they meet the unique needs of consumers unable or unwilling to use the services of more traditional lenders.  But many have claimed that certain of their practices are unethical. Do payday lenders take advantage of those less fortunate in our society?  Are their fees exorbitant, or are the fees merely a fair return given the risk the payday lenders are incurring?  This case looks at these and other issues surrounding the payday lending industry

I Quit . . . Again

Ethical dilemmas are not always of our making. Carol, a licensed CPA, finds herself in the middle of a scheme concocted by two employees of her firm to defraud the U.S. government. Carol must negotiate both a legal and ethical tightrope. Her choice to do the ethically correct thing could lead to her dismissal or other retaliation by her boss. The case could be used in the following undergraduate or graduate courses: accounting, business law, business ethics, human resources

The Use Of Automated Telephone Interfaces With Customers By Local Organizations: Best Practices And Exploratory Investigation Of Usage

Automated telephone systems (ATS) have been criticized by customers as a frustrating way to interact with an organization.  This study seeks to discover ATS best practices, assess how many local organizations (as opposed to 1-800 call centers) are utilizing various ATSs, and determine which ATS best practices these local organizations are adopting.  A list of 35 best practices were found.  An exploratory examination of 400 organizations in a mid-sized mid-western city revealed that very few use an advanced ATS, with 51% using a simple answering machine. The adoption of best practices by these organizations was quite varied.  Managerial recommendations as well as future research suggestions are offered

Salesperson Listening: A Replication And Extension Of The ILPS Scale

The primary purpose of this study was further testing of the ILPS scale (Castleberry, et al. 1999). The sample consisted of 101 salespeople from three business-to-business firms in the Midwest.  In addition to the ILPS exhibiting good reliability, results are consistent with prior research indicating a significant positive relationship between listening ability and salesperson performance.  Results also found a significant positive relationship between listening ability and adaptability and age.  Contrary to past salesperson listening research, females were found to be better listeners than men, and there was no significant relationship between listening and salesperson experience. Implications for managers and researchers are offered.&nbsp