The Case for Competition: Learning About Evidence-Based Management Through Case Competition Presentation by Tina Saksida, UPEI AOM Annual Meeting, 2015, Vancouver

1. The Case for Competition: Learning
About Evidence-Based Management
Through Case Competition
Tina Saksida
R. Blake Jelley
University of Prince Edward Island
Edward N. Gamble
Montana State University
2015 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.)

5. 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

6. 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

7. PDW Discussion
• Feasibility of EBMgt case competition
• Challenging the status quo
• EBMgt case competition logistics
• Judging EBMgt case competitions