Founded in 1998, Tencent Holdings Ltd. (Tencent) is a pioneer in value-added internet services in China and was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 2004. Tencent''s messaging and social networking platforms, WeChat and QQ, are leaders in internet instant messaging. Its business also includes the cloud, industrial internet, and interactive entertainment. The number of employees increased from a few dozen to over .....more

Wahl Clipper Ningbo Ltd. is a wholly owned company of Wahl Group, a century-old American enterprise, in China. Owing to a crisis in 2008, Wahl (Ningbo) was on the verge of bankruptcy. Qian Moxing was appointed as a general manager at the time of the crisis. In line with the proverbial saying ''new broom sweeps clean'', ''A new person makes many changes''. Qian was enlightened with traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, .....more

Heilongjiang Feihe Dairy Co., Ltd. (Feihe) was located in Qiqihar City, a medium-sized city in Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China. Situated in the golden milk source zone at 47 degrees north latitude, the city had been producing powdered milk products and sold them to domestic consumers for 58 years. However, the 2008 melamine incident (MLM) almost wiped out local brands in the domestic infant formula market and left a vacancy for foreign brands .....more

At the November 2019 Open Day conference, the vice-president of JD.com shared his understanding of the role that supplier collaboration played in an uncertain environment. Through 15 years of fast growth, JD.com had become the largest business-to-consumer platform in China with more than 30,000 suppliers. Using a boundless retail strategy, JD.com had to build a seamless channel from supplier to customer, which required a close look at how to collaborate .....more

The Ayangue community is a tourist destination in the municipality of Santa Elena in Ecuador known for its tranquil waters and its proximity to the El Pelado Marine Reserve a popular place for scuba diving, snorkelling, and leisure trips. The community was facing a series of issues in its pursuit to boost tourism in the area among which stood out: inadequate infrastructure, the informal nature of tourism businesses, controls on beach capacity being .....more

This case explores how the retail customers of the Bank of China lost an astounding RMB10bn (USD1.27bn) by investing in a structured product. The product, Crude Oil Treasure, was linked to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures. These crude oil futures were traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and were used as a benchmark in oil pricing. The negative futures price of -USD37.63 per barrel on 20 April 2020 was a "black swan" event. Never .....more

This case explores the corporate finance issues arising from the suspension of HSBC Holdings plc''s (HSBC, stock code: 5.HK) dividend payout in March 2020. Such abrupt change in pattern was immediately met with tremendous reverberation and discussion in the market. The case seeks to highlight the considerations of HSBC in deciding on a dividend policy, both from a corporate finance and behavioral finance perspective. Through the case, students .....more

This case examines a universal question: How can a tech startup (such as an AI or big data startup) address the pain points of traditional vertical industries through technological innovation and create value? Some tech startups set ambitious goals, which demand significant and sustained investments in R&D, but fail to plan for commercial development in order to remain viable: when funding runs out, they go bust. Others aim for low-hanging fruit .....more

Launched in 2010, CredEx Fintech Co. Ltd. (CredEx) operated until 2017 as a mobile credit platform, connecting lenders and borrowers in the Chinese small- and microcredit market. In 2017, the Chinese government introduced a regulation to address misconducts in the credit market. As a result, CredEx needed to transform by utilizing mobile credit technology to enable and support licensed financial institutions to explore mobile credit markets. In 2018, .....more

Kathy Ayers, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Land and Nature (L&N) Jerky Company, needs to make a recommendation about L&N''s 2020 promotional spending. L&N''s CEO, Tim Ryan, wants her to calculate different scenarios using historical data to determine which option to recommend. Specifically, Ryan wants Ayers to recommend one of the three options: reduce the promotion budget by 30%, increase spending .....more