NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

You are invited to submit your academic case study about a business dilemma faced by a company or organization located or doing business in the MENA region. Please review our entry requirements.

All submitted case studies must focus on a business dilemma of an organization or company located or doing business in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya , Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Yemen.) The organization or company can be small or large, entrepreneurial or long-established and can include private sector multinationals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or nonprofit organizations. The key is to ensure the case describes a challenge faced by the organization related to creating, implementing, evaluating, and/or disseminating a market-based solution in the MENA region.

By launching this case writing competition, WDI Publishing aims to:

• Encourage/reward the development and publication of new, relevant academic case studies about the MENA region.
• Publish teaching materials that will increase understanding of the unique and realistic challenges and advantages of doing business in the MENA region.
• Encourage usage of case studies in the MENA region as tools to develop the critical thinking skills of higher education students.

Over the course of 2019, there has been a discernable, growing focus on “authenticity” in the impact investing and entrepreneurship space. As more and different types of capital — some of which is more unintentional and self-interested than conscious and mission-centric — enter the space, there has been an increasing interest in finding ways to maintain authenticity and keep impact investing “on mission”.

In this 2019 Year in Review webinar, three impact investing luminaries address these and related questions:

• What is authenticity in impact investing?
• Is “impactwashing” (or “greenwashing”) a growing concern? If so, how can it be identified and, if necessary, called out?
• How vulnerable are ESG practices in/reporting by public companies and ESG investing to impactwashing?
• What is the relationship between personal authenticity/transformation and authentic impact investing?
• What steps can impact entrepreneurs take to ground their businesses in authenticity and locate capital that is truly mission aligned?
• How does the growing practice of place-based investing assist in grounding authenticity of impact? What are the challenges of maintaining authentic impact focus in this community-centric investing and entrepreneurship movement?
• Why is authenticity essential for building a transformational impact economy?