Business Cases

Business Case Teaching at School of Business

Over the last number of years our School of Business has encouraged and supported the development and use of a range of business and management case studies on programmes within the School. These cases have offered our students an appreciation of contemporary issues, challenges, and opportunities facing the business and management community.

As we know, today, managers face challenges from growing global economic forces, changing technology in products and processes, and demographic diversity among employees and customers. Our School has been and continues to be concerned with students’ intellectual and cultural growth as well as their educational progress and development in their areas of study. Hence a key feature of our delivery methodology on our programmes is the case-style format which allows an open dialogue between our faculty and student body.

Business case studies are an important vehicle for teaching at third level, bringing students closer to real life examples that they can recognise, and stimulate student thinking about the application of business concepts to the world of practice. As recent reports remind us, building the stock of knowledge and know-how in the economy is critical to Ireland’s future economic development.

The use of relevant case studies, ‘live’ simulations/class exercises, and guest speakers add a greater dimension of expertise to the course materials. Our learning environment is rooted in the tradition of teaching and scholarship based on relevant “real world” situations. Our faculty have developed a range of case materials which focus attention on recent developments within Irish and international management practice and provide student cohorts with culturally and contextually relevant accounts of managers’ experiences, which enable them to further develop skills in particular areas.

Our case collection series within the School builds on the scholastic case method approach pioneered by Harvard Business School and our cases explore the range of topics relevant to business organisations including the management of innovation, growth, internationalisation, and technology transfer in a manner relevant to the Irish context.

Our collection includes recently developed cases as well as ‘live’ cases with companies where students have the opportunity to address problems and challenges of significance to Irish organisations. The development of these cases acknowledges the continuing need to develop a cadre of experienced Irish thought-leaders capable of dealing with the complexities of managerial responsibilities in an increasingly dynamic global business environment. The cases developed within the School encourage the stimulation of links between these business professionals and management academics through mutual engagement in the case initiatives, nurturing an important link between practice and the academy through case writing scholarship.