Case competition

In a case competition, participants compete for the best solution to a business or education-related case study within an allocated timeframe.^[1][2] Most competitions involve undergraduate students, reportedly a result of the approach's continuing prominence in the North American sector. Teams deliver presentations for judges and while competitions vary in composition, a standard format and purpose exists.

History

The case competition concept originated in the United States and originally involved only domestic competitors. The idea of expanding the concept to include international organizations emerged later and Asia,^[1] Quebec and Canada host competitions.^[3]

Although case competitions were initially introduced in business education in North America and Western Europe, other regions, are starting to catch up. The Middle East and North Africa region has recently seen the launch of the Middle East & North Africa Regional Case Initiative (MENARCCI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB). MENARCCI's goal is to serve as a depository of all necessary knowledge about the case method, sources of cases and publishing outlets, and the links to all cases on the Region available on-line. In the Middle East, cases competitions are conducted by the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo. More information can be found on MENARCCI web site.

Purpose

Participants exercise skills and knowledge on a "real world" case for an actual company, with the support of representatives who can provide professional advice.^[1] Other competitions select an issue based on its degree of importance, and employ the competition as a means to both highlight the issue and create potential solutions through the efforts of the competitors.^[2] Participants can also be assessed as potential candidates for analysis-based jobs.

Description

Teams in case competitions display how quickly, thoroughly and skillfully a case can be understood and analyzed, and solutions crafted. Teams do not interact. Each team is judged independently. The teams usually adhere to a time limit and specific rules. The judges' decision is usually final and, in a competition such as the John Molson MBA International Case Competition, a summary evaluation is provided confidentially.^[3]

The John Molson School of Business hosts the largest international case competition in the world [John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition - http://jmucc.ca/] and also boasts the largest case competition program [John Molson Competition Committee - http://johnmolson.concordia.ca/undergrad/compete-for-jmsb] in the world - sending over 65 teams to over 40 competitions each year.

Competitions can be internal to a business school, or they can involve teams from multiple schools. Sometimes the competition includes several rounds, with the final round typically judged by outside company executives (sometimes the panel consists of executives from the actual company in the case). For example, the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business' 2010 round of its Global Business Case Competition featured a customized case on the Boeing Company^[4] and Boeing executives acted as judges.^{[citation needed]}

Formats

Formats vary according to a number of dimensions. The following dimensions are often used to classify and compare competitions:

• Host: corporate versus educational institution
• Participant selection: "by invitation" versus "by application"
• Level: undergraduate, graduate,...

Formats may vary along practical dimensions, including:

• Case specificity (whether the case has been written especially for the competition or not)
• Number of teams
• Organization (student-run, professional etc.)
• Rules, e.g.:
  • Time (common format is 24 hours)
  • Material
  • Degree of access to expert advice (either from within the competition or externally)

Format variations

Some competitions add complexity to create a more interesting challenge. For example, Ohio State University (OSU)'s Center For International Business Education And Research (CIBER), in its annual Case Challenge, created teams from the overall pool of participants, regardless of school, dissolving the usual school-based team format. For the Ohio State scenario, once the students are assigned to teams, a full day of team-building exercises is run for competitors.

Notable competitions

Invitational competitions

Competition	Country	University	Level	Teams	Inaugural Year
Asian Business Case Competition @ Nanyang (ABCC)[5]	Singapore	Nanyang Technological University	Undergraduate	12 teams	2007
CBS Case Competition[6]	Denmark	Copenhagen Business School	Undergraduate	12 teams	2002
Champions Trophy Case Competition[7]	New Zealand	University of Auckland	Undergraduate	12 teams	2008
Citi International Case Competition[8]	Hong Kong	HKUST	Undergraduate	20 teams	2003
Global Business Case Competition[9]	United States	University of Washington	Undergraduate	15 teams	1999
International Graduate Competition[10]	Canada	HEC Montreal	Graduate	8 teams	2012
John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition[11]	Canada	John Molson School of Business	Undergraduate	24 teams	2009
Marshall International Case Competition[12]	United States	University of Southern California	Undergraduate	30 teams	1997
McGill Management International Case Competition[13]	Canada	McGill University	Undergraduate	12 teams	2001
McIntire International Case Competition[14][15]	United States	University of Virginia	Undergraduate	6 teams	1982
NUS-DBS International Case Competition[16]	Singapore	National University of Singapore	Undergraduate	12 teams	2009
Sauder Summit Global Case Competition[17]	Canada	Sauder School of Business	Undergraduate	12 teams	2013

Competitions by application

Competition	Country	Associated Institution	Level	Participants
Inter-Collegiate Business Competition (I.C.B.C.)[18]	Canada	Queen's School of Business	Undergraduate	102 (48 teams)
Business Masters[19]	Germany	Karlsruhe Institute of Technology	Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate	27 (9 teams)
CaseIT MIS Case Competition[20]	Canada	Beedie School of Business	Undergraduate	64 (16 teams)
Hult Global Case Challenge[21]	United Kingdom	Hult International Business School	Graduate	150 teams
KPMG Case Competition [22]	Hong Kong	KPMG	Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate
L'Oreal Brandstorm	France	L'Oreal	Undergraduate	135 (45 teams)
Rubicon Contest [23]	Germany	b.one, BiTS Iserlohn	Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate	96
Suitable for Business Case Competition[24]	Denmark	Suitable for Business	Mixed Undergraduate/Graduate	48
Changellenge >> [25]	Russia		Undergraduate	2,500
Purdue Human Capital Case Competition [26]	United States	Krannert School of Management	Graduate	36 (9 teams)

References