The Case for Competition: Learning About Evidence-Based

Management Through Case Competition

Tina SaksidaR. Blake Jelley

University of Prince Edward Island

Edward N. GambleMontana State University

2015 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

EBMgt and the Case Method

• EBMgt education central to the development of EBMgt in practice– EBMgt currently featured in relatively few MBA

courses (Charlier et al., 2011)

• The case method– Traditional, almost taken-for-granted part of

management education (Mesny, 2013)– Benefits and criticism of case-based instruction

• Alternative: Case-based approach and EBMgt

Case Competitions

• Typical case competition– Benefits to business students– Limitations

• Opportunities for improvement –More explicit and frequent use of EBMgt

in competitions• EBMgt as the cornerstone for case

competition logistics, case selection, student preparation, judging calibration, and evaluation criteria

EBMgt Case Competition

• Purpose of the competition– Impact student learning and development– Promote the EBMgt approach to stakeholders

• Tentative competition structure– Written preliminary case– Three stages for top teams at competition

venue– Access to evidence-informed models– Access to library databases and search engines

• Searching for evidence vs. using popularized business tools (e.g., SWOT, Porter, 4Ps, etc.)

EBMgt Case Competition

• Writing or selecting cases– Explicitly incorporate the four components of

EBMgt

• Judging and the evaluation rubric – Selection and training of judges– Rubrics carefully aligned with EBMgt principles

• Preparing students– Training phases and distributed training schedule

• Progressive transfer of problem-solving responsibility

– Student performance feedback– Institutional buy-in

Benefits of EBMgt Case Competition

• Student learning and development– EBMgt mind- and skill-set– Critical thinking– Meeting student preference for “enjoyable”

instruction

• Publicity– Awareness of EBMgt among competition

stakeholders

• Opportunity to develop new EBMgt materials– E.g., handbook of EBMgt case analysis

• Potential data collection source for researchers

PDW Discussion

• Feasibility of EBMgt case competition

• Challenging the status quo• EBMgt case competition logistics• Judging EBMgt case competitions