Instructor’s Manual Abstracts
Vol 2, Issue 1 IM Abstract: Breaking New Ground: Sofvie’s Role in Advancing Health & Safety Standards in the Mining Sector
Sidney J. Shapiro and Alison Xiang Liu
Case Overview
The case study explores the complex challenges and strategic decisions that Sofvie, a software firm specializing in occupational health and safety, communication data transparency, and operational efficiency, had to navigate. In this case, the central figure was Gus Minor, who found himself entangled in the intricate task of identifying a suitable market strategy for Sofvie’s offerings and effectively communicating its benefits to a broad spectrum of stakeholders. These stakeholders included frontline workers interested in more transparent communication and accountability and senior executives seeking sophisticated, data-driven decision-making tools. While these stakeholders’ needs were at odds, the case is aimed to drive discussion into Sofvie’s strategies for reconciling these divergent requirements. For instance, frontline workers’ demand for transparent communication could clash with executives’ needs for high-level analytics, creating a software design and functionality challenge.
Learning Objectives
By working through this case, students should be able to
- Analyze a complex strategic marketing problem facing a software firm involving multiple stakeholders.
- Identify and segment markets for an industry-specific software product.
- Develop useful and actionable market strategy recommendations going forward for the leader of the software firm.
Course Suitability
Undergraduate Strategic Marketing courses are positioned near the end of the course once students have developed a good understanding of the concepts of market identification and segmentation strategies.
Recommended Reading
Septiani, N., Bist, A. S., Bangun, C. S., & Dolan, E. (2022). Digital business student development for entrepreneurs with software. Startupreneur Business Digital (SABDA Journal), 1(1), 33–43.
Unterkalmsteiner, M., Abrahamsson, P., Wang, X., Nguyen-Duc, A., Shah, S. M. A., Bajwa, S. S., Baltes, G. H., Conboy, K., Cullina, E., & Dennehy, D. (2016). Software startups—A research agenda [PDF]. e‑Informatica Software Engineering Journal, 10(1): 89–123.
Melegati, J., Goldman, A., Kon, F., & Wang, X. (2019). A model of requirements engineering in software startups. Information and Software Technology, 109, 92–107.
Hockenberry, T. (2019). Embrace marketing ideas to impact change management. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 42(1), 19–21. ABI/INFORM Collection; ABI/INFORM Global.
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