Cases in the Environment of Business

The Ivey Casebooks Series is a co-publishing partnership between SAGE Publications and the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. Due to their popularity in more than 60 countries, approximately 200 new cases are added to the Ivey School of Business library each year. Each of the casebooks comes equipped with instructor′s resources on CD-ROM. These affordable collections will not only help students connect to real-world situations, but will benefit corporations seeking continued education in the field as well.  

Broadening the scope of environmental forces to a global rather than a domestic context leads to cross-country comparisons that add complexity to the subject matter, enrich analytical theories, and heighten the interest of students. Students gain an appreciation for the many ways in which environmental forces interact, creating a set of risks and opportunities that is unique in each country and that must be evaluated in formulating trade and investment decisions.

Cases in the Environment of Business offers an outstanding collection of relevant, classroom-tested cases.  In discussing the cases, students will participate in managerial decisions in an international context.  Most cases deal with a variety of environmental forces, but generally a single set of forces plays a predominant role. The instructor′s resources on CD-ROM includes detailed 6-10 page casenotes for each case, preparation questions for students to review before class, discussion questions, and suggested further readings.


Cases in the Environment of Business addresses the following five sets of environmental forces:

• Industry Structure Responses to strategies of customers, suppliers, and competitors, ; dependence of profitability on unique value-added attributesand the shift of certain activities to low-wage countries
• Macroeconomic Variables Income levels and growth rates, foreign exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, and unemployment rates
• Political Variables Regulations, financial incentives, taxation, foreign investment restrictions, and international trade and investment agreements
• Societal Variables Labor and environmental practices, ethics, corporate social responsibility, boards of directors, and demographics
• Technological Variables Technological  infrastructure and the pace and direction of technological changes, including, in particular, the Internet and e-business.    

The IVEY Casebook Series
Cases in Business Ethics
Cases in Entrepreneurship
Cases in Gender & Diversity in Organizations
Cases in Operations Management
Cases in Organizational Behavior
Cases in the Environment of Business
Cases in Alliance Management
Mergers and Acquisitions: Text and Cases

David W. Conklin is James D. Fleck Professor in International Business and a Professor of the Global Environment of Business area group at Richard Ivey School of Business. In addition he is President, Conklin and Associates, Inc., a company which undertakes research and consulting activities for private corporations and government departments and agencies on public policy issues. He has also taught in the Economics and Political Science Departments at UWO, and has been an Adjunct Professor in Social Science. He earned a BA in political science and economics from the University of Toronto and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Conklin′s research work focuses on the interface between corporations and public policies. This includes work for governments in the design and enforcement of legislation and regulations, as well as consulting for corporations in influencing public policies and in complying with government legislation and regulations. He has been Director, UWO Office of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, and Director of the University of Western Ontario Centre for American Studies. Over the past fifteen years, he has published over 50 articles and over 30 books.