Singapore Administration College wins at The Case Centre’s 31st Awards and Competitions

Patricia Lui and Lipika Bhattacharya from SMU win at the Case Method Community’s annual “Oscars”.

First-time winners, Patricia Lui and Lipika Bhattacharya of Singapore Management University (SMU), wrote a case that won the Outstanding Case Scribing Competition category in the 2021 Case Center Awards and Competitions. Patricia is a Lecturer in Marketing at the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Lipika Bhattacharya is a Senior Case Writer at the SMU Center of Management Practice.

Excellent case writers and teachers from around the world are recognized in the Case Center Awards and Competitions. These prestigious awards celebrate worldwide excellence in case writing and teaching and are now considered the annual “Oscars” of the Case Method community. This is the third time that the SMU has achieved a victory. The university had previously received two awards in 2010 and 2018.

The case, authored by Patricia and Lipika, entitled “Kobe Influencer Marketing: Building Brand Awareness Through Social Media” offers insights into the world of brand influencers. To weave the case together, they worked closely with Evangeline Leong, the founder and CEO of Kobe, a Singapore-based startup and influencer marketing platform.

The 2021 Case Center Awards and Contests are an annual celebration of excellence in case writing and teaching in schools of business, management, and government around the world. Now in its 31st year, the awards have been worldwide since 2011.

Richard McCracken, Director of the Case Center, said: “Educators have faced challenges during the pandemic, especially when it comes to teaching online – including case classes. This has underscored the need to adjust the cases. We believe that teaching with online cases as part of mixed programs will become an enduring norm. Building on our insights from this year’s Awards, we will encourage published authors in The Case Center catalog to update teaching notes to reflect the new reality of online teaching.

“The Awards provide an annual snapshot of the subjects taught to businesses and management around the world. This year, interest in multinational companies has increased again, especially in companies with an online or technology focus. For the first time we also saw a case relating to the social media phenomenon of “influencers” (Kobe). By and large, ethical issues also retain their place, including energy sustainability (Enel), food upcycling (Barnana) and gender equality (FTS). 27% of the winning cases were female protagonists. “

Patricia and Lipika emphasized that “Winning this competition means that the judges have recognized the area of ​​business issues that we have written about. It encourages us to keep working on unique business stories and topics, and helps us spark our interest in exploring the case writing method to better engage students. “

“In line with SMU Vision 2025, to address the complexities of the world and positively impact humanity, ways must continually be found to increase the potential impact and cultivate meaningful change,” said Patricia. “Through the cases we write, we want to convey a deep understanding of Asia’s economy, politics and society.”

Lipika continued, “There are several reasons this case was popular. First, the case tells a story of something that interests people. Influencer marketing and social media are relevant to readers. Second, the narrative speaks about an entrepreneur’s journey and its motivations, stemming from the age-old notion of human influence and word of mouth. Third, the case tries to link new business strategies with social traditions in order to create aha moments that encourage reflection. Fourth, the case, although focused on Southeast Asia, speaks about discussion points that are global in context. “

“Most brands use an agency to plan and implement their digital marketing campaigns. We wanted to write the influencer marketing case with contributions from both the agency and the brand. It was a challenge to find both an agency and a brand so we could write about their campaign, ”commented Patricia.

Lipika said, “We were grateful that Evangeline Leong, the founder and CEO of Kobe, provided us with detailed information that enabled us to link our expertise to the case situation and issues. We looked at how the strategy was developed from an agency’s point of view, which is not common when writing business cases. “

Click here for details on The Case Center Awards and Contests 2021.