Recently, supported by the China National MBA education Supervisory Committee, the 12th "National Top 100 Excellent Management Cases" selection (special precision and corporate social responsibility for poverty alleviation) was responsibly organized by the China Management Case-sharing Center. In the end, 38 cases were selected. Professor Xiao-jie Liang and Lu Mei-yi from the College of Management and Economics (hereafter called CoME) of Tianjin University (hereafter called TJU) successfully won the award for a case study titled Luo Ba Wang[1]: Witnessing "a small bowl of rice noodles" become a "big industry" bringing greater prosperity.
In the outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan" (2021-2025), following words have been frequently mentioned: "developing characteristic industries in accordance with local conditions", "promoting sustainable development of characteristic industries", "implementing action to improve the characteristic planting and promoting industry in poverty-stricken areas" and "developing modern rural industries with characteristics to enrich local people". Secretary general Xi jin-ping pointed out that "The development of characteristic industries not only benefits enterprises, but more importantly, benefits local people and enables them to live a better life." So how to effectively balance entrepreneurial growth and corporate social responsibility to achieve a win-win situation has become a common concern in both theoretical and practical circles.
Liuzhou Luosifen (river snails rice noodles), praised by President Xi in April 2021, has created a miracle of "double ten billion" in 2020. The transaction value of pre-packaged snail noodles and upstream raw materials both exceeded 10 billion yuan, and "a small bowl of rice noodles" has become a "big industry" benefiting local people. In 2015, Yao Han-lin seized the opportunity to set up the Luo Ba Wang, and in six years, it has become an industry leader of Liuzhou River snails rice noodles. Moreover, Luo Ba Wang has also become a model of enterprises helping to alleviate poverty. Relying on the development model of the whole industrial chain, Luo Ba Wang has become a model for enterprises to help alleviate poverty in the upstream of the river snail noodles industry, leading the villagers to embark on the road to prosperity together.
This case focuses on "reaching double harvest of entrepreneurial development and industrial poverty alleviation". It stresses out how to identify entrepreneurial opportunities, to successfully break out of the brand "chaos", and to upgrade the enterprise "poverty alleviation model" to the industrial "wealth creation model" based on the national and regional development strategy. This case is suitable for students of entrepreneurial management, strategic management, corporate social responsibility and other courses, aiming to arouse students thinking about entrepreneurial opportunity identification, entrepreneurial strategic decision-making and enterprise poverty alleviation.
The Soul of Case Topic: Interest, Typicality and Sensibility
Interest is the best teacher. So the case topic should be something you genuinely love and find funny so as to maintain the motivation of research. The topic selection of the case should closely follow the pulse of the Times. Whether the topic is too old or too new, it is difficult to ensure the sustainable survival of the case. It is necessary to ensure that the life course of the enterprise is rich and colorful enough for scholars to study. Acuity is also required for topic selection to take full advantage of all kinds of latest information as a source of inspiration.
Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the consumption demand of "house economy" has surged, and the fast food industry has ushered in a new development opportunity. Snail rice noodles have become the top popular food, and the pre-packaged snail noodles have become a new trend of capital competition. In 2015, Yao Han-lin seized the opportunity to set up Luo Ba Wang, and then spent six years successfully breaking through hundreds of brands and became the magnate in the snail noodle industry. Luo Ba Wang is a representative enterprise that takes advantage of the dual effect connected with industrial development and rural revitalization, increasing farmers income. On April 26, 2021, President Xi said "the small bowl of rice noodles can be a big industry", praising the industry development of snail rice noodles.
The case team first paid attention to the Internet popularity of snail rice noodles and later noticed that this industry was highly praised by Secretary General Xi Jin-ping. Professor Xiao-jie Liang has estimated and determined that this case topic is novel and typical, focusing on the process of Luo Ba Wang entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation, which is worth researching and thinking through. Based on this, the case team collected data on Luo Ba Wang and snail rice noodle industry, and timely followed up the follow-up progress.
Theorizing Case Phenomena: Transition from Practice to Scholarship
Both of sticking to the story to find a theory and reading the story according to the theory are key strategies to extract the management topics from complicated management phenomenons and then sublimate the case phenomenon into academic research. The idea of case analysis starts from the main story line of the case to sorting out the analysis logic line, then to refining it into the question line, and finally to summarizing it as the knowledge line. In this process, it is necessary to constantly control focus and repeatedly think about the relevance of the question and the theory. We should not only maintain the case theme in several outlines consistent, but also dig out the case possibilities.
The case theme of Luo Ba Wang is to achieve a double harvest of entrepreneurial development and industrial poverty alleviation. We choose theories and tools such as entrepreneurial theory, entrepreneurial strategy formulation, and targeted poverty alleviation model for small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out the case, so as to keep the story in line with the theory. During the development of the case description, the team repeatedly discussed the logical thread to keep it clear and coherent to ensure that the theory focused on the theme and reflected the realistic tensions of entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation of the case.
The Authors Introduction
Associate Professor Xiao-jie Liang:
Teaching and research fields are management communication, modern human resource management and management psychology.
Lu Mei-yi:
2018 MBA, from CoME of TJU.
Teachers and students from CoME of TJU have always been actively developing original, practical and targeted high quality management cases. Based on the system and cultural background of China, the actual enterprise development and the background of the CoME’s commitment to building "new business", CoME has gotten a series of excellent achievements with both practical significance and theoretical value. These cases will be used in business courses and classes and fill the gap between theory and practice, which not only directly helps to cultivate business talents, but also contributes to the economic and management wisdom for enterprises and social and economic development in China.
The previous "National Top 100 Management Cases" list of CoME.
By: College of Management and Economics
Editor: Qin Mian
