Aura Bengkang Enterprise: How a tapioca cake business taps its creativity to stay competitive

• Main Authors: Abu Bakar, Lily Julienti, Soon, Jan Jan
• Format: Article
• Published: Sage Journal 2020
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/27462/; http://doi.org/10.1177/2277977919881405
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The case opens with the founding CEO of Aura Bengkang Enterprise, Hafiz, urgently assessing his sudden disruption of tapioca supply due to unforeseen massive floods. The unexpected disruption threatens Aura’s production of baked tapioca cakes, its main product. Hafiz is then confronted by one of his cake distributors pulling Aura’s products from her stall. The case is set against the backdrop of challenges faced by manufacturing small-and-medium enterprises in the food and beverages manufacturing sector. The case is an amalgamation of the entrepreneurship and economics disciplines. The case focuses on two particular areas within the two disciplines: (i) entrepreneurial creativity/innovation (ii) monopolistic competition. The marriage of these two disciplines has been found wanting, especially in Malaysian teaching cases. The case contributes to the pool of teaching cases which transcend multidisciplinary dimensions. The two issues facing Hafiz are aligned with the case’s three learning objectives. These objectives are themselves a step-by-step guide for the students to first explain the concepts of entrepreneurial creativity/innovation, and second, to explain the attributes of firms operating in a monopolistic competition market. The third learning objective is to help the students utilize their knowledge to recommend solutions to the issues.