International award for local case writers

Auckland-based company Good Water, which uses PLA plastic bottles that are completely biodegradable, is the subject of an award winning case study. Drs Steve Bowden and Eva Collins from Waikato University Management School along with Kate Kearins and Helen Tregidga from AUT have been awarded the Ruth Greene Memorial Award from the North American Case Writers Association (NACRA). It’s for the best case originating from outside North America.

“Our strategic management students used the case earlier this year, so it’s been tried and tested,” says Dr Bowden. “It’s really a sustainable entrepreneurship case that targets undergraduate and executive education markets. It’s innovative too, because we’ve embedded video and internet-based data into the written case, including links to YouTube.”

Dr Bowden says the case is flexible enough to be pitched at different levels of students. They can use just the written ‘base-line’ story or go into much more depth if they choose to by using interactive media.

“In terms of concepts, the Good Water case is a good entrepreneurial story of one man realising he was part of the problem in the bottled water industry of producing non-biodegradable plastic bottles that are destroying our environment and deciding to do something about it. It's been a difficult journey and he has decided to open up his intellectual property to competitors in order to make real change and achieve his Nirvana vision,” says Dr Bowden.

“A good case is like a good fable,” he says. A great story with interesting characters that is underlined by a great moral that requires some thought to fully appreciate.”

The case is being targeted at an international journal - so will be used outside New Zealand. Dr Bowden will be going to the NACRA conference in Santa Cruz later this month to collect the award and says the added exposure there will be a good way to attract international interest for the enormous textbook markets, particularly in the US.

The New Zealand academics have earlier had cases placed at the Oikos international case awards, for cases based on Kapai New Zealand and Phoenix Organics, and they’ll be entering the Good Water case into the next Oikos awards as well.

ENDS

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