Los Borrachos was a specialty bar in Seoul, South Korea, with the unique vision of creating an intimate gathering place that celebrated sparkling wines and European-style dishes. While the bar generated enough revenue to cover its monthly expenses, it fell short of providing significant income for its co-founders. To fulfill their vision for Los Borrachos, the co-founders need to determine how to attract more of Los Borrachos’ target clientele and .....more

In 2019, Starbuck Corporation (Starbucks) launched Deep Brew, a platform driven by artificial intelligence (AI) designed to enhance personalization, optimize operations, and manage inventory across its vast global retail network. By leveraging AI, Starbucks aimed to improve customer engagement, streamline store efficiency, and strengthen its data-driven decision-making. However, the adoption of Deep Brew introduced significant challenges, including .....more

In May 2024, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. (SEC) faced its first-ever strike in its 55-year history, as the National Samsung Electronics Union called for a one-day work stoppage on June 7, 2024, to demand better pay. The strike targeted SEC’s semiconductor division, which produced critical components like memory chips, universal serial bus drives, and camera sensors. This division, once a leader in global semiconductor revenues, had .....more

Inter IKEA Systems B.V. (IKEA) entered Korea at a relatively late stage of its global expansion and encountered an overwhelmingly positive customer response, which emboldened it to open several additional stores at a relatively fast pace. However, IKEA encountered much stronger headwinds after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Korea. It had to shift to online sales channels, mitigate customer dissatisfaction, face aggressive Korean competitors, accommodate .....more

In late 2022, E-Mart, South Korea’s leading supermarket chain, had pulled out of major Asian markets such as China and Vietnam after experiencing poor performance, and the company planned to expand into the US market. In the Asian markets, E-Mart relied on a direct entry mode, but in the US it changed its mode of entry by acquiring local companies and planning to open new grocery brand stores. Although the US market has substantial growth opportunities .....more

In September of 2020, an international business executive at the North Dakota Trade Office was asked by a client company, Dakota Growers Pasta Company Inc., to advise it on how to increase pasta exports to South Korea. Like many other firms in North Dakota, the client faced a number of hurdles to building successful export businesses. These included limited exposure to foreign markets and limited expertise in trade-related regulations and processes, .....more

In May 2021, the South Korean boy band BTS beat out other international musicians for all four of the <i>Billboard</i> Music Awards for which they had been nominated. “Dynamite,” BTS’s top-selling song, was the band’s first song in English. BTS and other K-pop groups had been able to achieve a high level of global success, especially since 2013, despite singing in a language that was foreign to many listeners. K-pop and other elements .....more

In March 2021, the chief strategy officer of Green Car Inc. (Green Car), an on-demand car-sharing services company, was contemplating the company’s strategic direction. In an on-demand car-sharing services model, a company owned vehicles and received a fee from consumers who borrowed those vehicles. The strategy of Green Car’s main competitor was to maximize its platform competitiveness by aggressively expanding its operational scale and scope, even .....more

Korean pop music (K-pop), once limited to an Asian market, broke its cultural boundaries and became global in 2012 when Psy’s song-and-dance video “Gangnam Style” went viral around the world. The subsequent global success of the Korean idol boy band BTS confirmed that K-pop had a place in an international music market. With international performances and major US awards since its debut in 2013, BTS was carefully analyzed by those who wanted to identify .....more

Students were provided with the financial data for 10 major companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019. They were also given a list of 10 major industries. As an exercise, students were then asked to identify which company operated within which industry. The exercise would test the students' understanding of how a company’s financial data can be specific to a particular industry. Using only financial figures, could the student identify .....more