This February is World Case Teaching Day, organized by The Case Centre – a day to recognize the importance of case studies in teaching, as a tool that enhances context analysis and critical thinking for effective decision making, and a resource that helps to consolidate knowledge from practice.

At IE University Publishing, we are well aware of the benefits of case studies, which is why we have been creating innovative content and formats to reach more students and maximize the potential of these materials.

To celebrate this special day, we wanted to invite Antonio González - IE University professor and author of several educational materials - to tell us about his favorite case study and how he sees the future of this methodology.

Antonio González is a professor at IE University and LIUC University. He is an expert in sales, marketing, market research, project management and customer experience, with 15 years of professional experience in several companies.

As an author and frequent user of case studies in his classes, we are interested to hear his opinion on certain aspects of relevance for the future of learning materials and education:

• Why do you like to use case studies? What do they bring to your classes?

I like cases because, in my opinion, they offer three almost unique advantages. First, they place all students in an identical business context where they have to actively make decisions after critically analyzing relevant information. Secondly, they show the need to adapt the fundamentals and theoretical frameworks to the case environment by teaching how - and here lies for me the third benefit - managers should orient their knowledge and course of action towards implementation.
In general, I believe that the contribution of the cases is dual: on the one hand, they facilitate learning in a practical and natural way while at the same time anticipating the near future in which we will be actively making business decisions.
 

• What is your favorite case study? Why?

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many excellent case studies in different areas. If I had to choose just one, I would choose " Wines of Georgia: Marketing the Cradle of Wine" because it combines strategy and tactics, marketing and history in a unique way that offers multiple uses and special learnings. 
From internationalization, to marketing plan, country branding, segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning or marketing-mix variables, this case offers opportunities for ecommerce and digital marketing proposals. It is a very versatile case.

• What is your favorite format – multimedia or pdf? What are the reasons?

Undoubtedly, multimedia because it offers more didactic possibilities, more flexibility and also immerses students in an environment that is more attractive and familiar to them, where learning is completely natural for them.

• How do you see the future of case studies in the next 5 years?

I am convinced that the near future is immersive reality. The potential of virtual worlds goes far beyond the initial entertainment objectives because the world's leading companies are adopting virtual worlds as working tools. 

Therefore, it is essential for educational institutions and teachers who have the ambition to remain at the forefront. We already use multimedia formats as a basis, to which we add simulators and cases in the metaverse conveniently.

In this way, we not only use the best technology available and the best suited format to each learning objective, but we also teach our students to work in a format that will be a fundamental tool once they graduate.

We thank Professor Gonzalez for his interesting reflections on case studies and take this opportunity to remind you that all of our teaching materials – including the case Wines of Georgia: Marketing the Cradle of Wine - are available in our online catalog.

Happy Case Study Day!

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