Universities attract a diverse student body, yet the cases used in classrooms often fail to reflect this diversity. Many feature executive protagonists from a limited demographic, making it challenging for students to see themselves in the narratives. This lack of representation can diminish engagement and the overall effectiveness of case-based learning.
The Case Writing Competition seeks to close this learning gap by encouraging authors to create teaching cases staged in the Arab MENA region (Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen) or Cyprus. The competition invites authors from all fields of business management to write cases with primary protagonists from this underrepresented region.
Case authors from all disciplines are invited to submit a case study to this year’s Case Writing Competition. Exposing our students to a variety of cases from different disciplines will help define their careers and their contributions to both the region’s enterprises and the world around them.
Up to three winning case studies will be selected. The winning cases will obtain:
- Recognition through a feature in The Case Hub news, website, and social media platforms.
- A plaque with a certificate for display.
- Monetary prizes of $3,000 for the best case study, $1,500 for the runner-up, and $750 for the third case. Prizes will be awarded to authors after publication. (If a case has multiple authors, the prize money will be transferred to the first author who will have the responsibility to share it with the other authors.)
- Winning case submissions will be reviewed before publication in our collection. Revisions may be requested to the case study and teaching note, and should be completed before submission to be accepted for publication.
- The competition is open to academics and practitioners; joint submissions are encouraged. At least one of the co-authors must be a faculty member or a Ph.D. candidate actively teaching at a business school.
- All case studies must be positioned in the Arab MENA region or Cyprus, and target a topic of interest to business education.
- Case studies must be based on a real (undisguised) decision made by a real protagonist in a real organization using either primary sources (interviews, field visits, and data) or secondary research. Primary sources are privileged.
- All case studies must be anonymous. Author and institution names must be concealed.
- Case studies must be original and unpublished.
- Submissions are accepted in both English and Arabic. Cases submitted in Arabic and selected for publishing will be translated into English.
To participate in the Case Writing Competition, submit the following:
- Case study including supporting documentation (.doc or .docx file) - Template available at this link.
- Teaching note - Template available at this link.
- A Consent to use release form for field-based cases, available at this link
- Any other supplementary material
The Case Writing Competition has a strong preference for field-based cases (cases based on direct contact and/or fieldwork with a company, including interviews, internal company data, etc.).
Writers providing financial exhibits must ensure that their .xls or .xlsx files are usable and editable.
Cases based on published sources should list all sources. Citations should reflect CMOS17 – Chicago Manual of Style. Guide available through
this link.
Case length not to exceed 8 pages of body text (Times New Roman 11pt, single spaced).
All submissions must include a teaching note (recommended sections: synopsis, learning objectives, teaching the case study, suggested supplementary material, suggested assignment questions, analysis, and epilogue).
Authors should hold copyright at submission. The cases should have never been published in part or in whole in any other venue.
- The submitted case and teaching note will be double-blind peer-reviewed by a jury selected by The Case Hub at the Sulima S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut.
- All submitted cases will be subject to review by plagiarism detection software.
- A declaration of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) should be included by authors.
- The case study and the teaching note have equal weights in the evaluation.
- The following are examples of criteria that will be used: relevance to business education, innovativeness of the topic, readability and understandability of the narrative, multi-perspective narrative/ situation, and additional resources (multimedia videos, data files, etc. that enrich the case study).
- Classroom utility: Successful classroom use as relayed in teaching and usage notes that provide thorough analysis and detailed teaching suggestions will be particularly valued.
- Timeliness and timelessness: Both new cases that fill important and emerging curriculum gaps and those that remain resilient in long and widespread use will receive special consideration.
- All decisions made by the selection committee are final.
Free Webinar
| 14 May 2026 - Click here to register
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Submission Closes
| 15 September 2026
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Announcement of Winners
| 18 November 2026
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