business case study high school

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Teaching Resources Library

Case studies.

The teaching business case studies available here are narratives that facilitate class discussion about a particular business or management issue. Teaching cases are meant to spur debate among students rather than promote a particular point of view or steer students in a specific direction.  Some of the case studies in this collection highlight the decision-making process in a business or management setting. Other cases are descriptive or demonstrative in nature, showcasing something that has happened or is happening in a particular business or management environment. Whether decision-based or demonstrative, case studies give students the chance to be in the shoes of a protagonist. With the help of context and detailed data, students can analyze what they would and would not do in a particular situation, why, and how.

Case Studies By Category

Case Method Project

• Harvard Business School →
• Case Method Project →

Bringing case method teaching to high schools & colleges: U.S. History, Government, Civics & Democracy

About the project  .

The Case Method Project is an initiative formed to achieve two goals:

• Bring case method teaching to high schools and colleges
• Use this methodology to deepen students’ understanding of American democracy

Based on the highly successful experience of Harvard Business School and other graduate and professional programs that use case-based teaching, we believe the case method can be employed to strengthen high school and college education as well, ensuring a more exciting, relevant, and effective experience for students and teachers across a range of subjects. We also believe the case method can be especially effective at engaging students with topics in history and democracy and that it presents a unique opportunity to help reverse the broad decline in civic education – and civic engagement – in the United States.

Curriculum  

For current partners  .

Already working with the Case Method Project?

Connect to other educators in our network and download case materials via ShareVault .

For Prospective Partners  

Interested in learning more about the Case Method Project?

Find out how to bring the case method to your school.

Eleanor Cannon Houston, TX Eleanor Cannon Houston, TX

Maureen O’Hern Dorchester, MA Maureen O’Hern Dorchester, MA

Michael Gordon Munster, IN Michael Gordon Munster, IN

“ I have had few weeks in teaching that I enjoyed as much as doing this case....My biggest dilemma now is how many cases I want to fit into the year. ”

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Australian Business Case Studies

Cross Curriculum Priorities

Relevent subjects, contributors.

28/11/2017 - UPDATED 30/08/2024

Help students understand the realities of owning and running a business, using real-life business stories from Australian entrepreneurs. This resource includes:

• 10 different business case studies;
• Topics including entrepreneurship, the essentials of building a business plan and overcoming business challenges;
• Practical insights into operating a business;
• Short clips from the SBS news program  Small Business Secrets,  hosted by Ricardo Goncalves;
• Discussion questions with guide responses provided.

We recommend you pre-screen the full-length episode before using in class. Head to SBS On Demand for personal viewing. For classroom viewing of whole episodes, please visit ClickView , or your school’s resource centre (for example Wingaru, Informit etc).

SBS Learn provides free Australian Curriculum aligned digital learning resources for teachers and educators. We create a wide range of printable and downloadable lesson plans for students.

Australian Curriculum

Cross-curriculum Priorities Sustainability

Economics and Business (HASS) Year 7:  ACHEK019 ,  ACHEK017 ,  ACHEK020 Year 8:  ACHEK030 Year 9:  ACHEK041 Year 10:  ACHEK053

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

15 Business Competitions for High School Students

What’s covered:, why should you enter an investing competition, how do business competitions affect my admissions chances.

Whether you dream of being a billionaire businessman like Mark Cuban, an investment icon like Warren Buffet, or a founder who’s focused on giving back like Hamdi Ulukaya, the creator and CEO of Chobani, entering a business competition for high schoolers is often a great first step toward a successful enterprise.

Business competitions are a great opportunity to show off your entrepreneurial spirit while gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges of starting and running a business. Business competitions allow you to highlight in-demand skills like idea generation, creative thinking, leadership, and communication. They also give you a chance to learn about building a business and to test your ideas in a relatively risk-free environment—after all, there is no capital or investment to lose. 

Many business competitions will also connect you with real-life professionals and college business school faculty. This creates both the chance for mentorship and the foundation of a business network that can serve you both inside and outside of the classroom—it can help with everything from gaining college admission to getting a business off the ground. 

Business competitions for high schoolers also often provide winners with monetary awards or scholarships which are beneficial for keeping the cost of college down—something every aspiring business person can appreciate. 

1. Conrad Challenge

Date(s): 2023 dates announced in August Type: Global 

This business challenge tasks students between ages 13 and 18 to apply science and technology to solve global issues, create a pitch, and build a business plan. Participants work in teams of two to five students to compete in four traditional categories and one special category that changes annually. The four traditional categories are:

• Aerospace and aviation 
• Cyber technology and security 
• Energy and environment 
• Health and Nutrition 

The 2021/2022 special category was “re-purposed farmlands and alternative uses of tobacco (and its by-products)”. 

2. Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition

Date(s): 2/18/22 Type: Global 

The Blue Ocean High School Entrepreneur Pitch Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious business competitions for high school students. Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five to generate an innovative product or service that the world needs and pitch it in a maximum five-minute-long video. 

3. Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition

Date(s): 4/1/22-9/15/22

Type: Global

Individuals between the ages of 13 and 29 are invited to participate in this business competition focused on using entrepreneurship to solve global issues. Participants are challenged to create or implement an idea, project, concept, solution, or initiative with a societal impact that addresses one of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals . 

4. Wharton Global High School Investment Competition

Dates: 9/22-4/23

The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is a highly regarded business competition for high schoolers and is open to students in grades nine through 12. Participants are required to examine a case study of a potential client and create a portfolio that meets their long-term goals using $100,000 in hypothetical funds. Unlike investment competitions that select winners based on the performance of their portfolio, Wharton Global High School Investment Competition winners are chosen based on the strength and articulation of their investment strategy. 

5. Global Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (GYEC)

Date(s): 5/28/21

The GYEC is a 12-hour, online, worldwide business competition for high school students ages 14 through 19. Participants work in teams of up to eight students—each ideally possessing broad and complementary skill sets—to solve a significant global problem using an innovative and sustainable enterprise idea. Winning teams will receive a trophy along with an award certificate.

6. GENIUS Olympiad Business 

Date(s): 4/18/22-6/18/22

Participants in the GENIUS Olympiad compete in numerous categories (including business) focused on environmental issues. Students can compete in one of two business tracks: entrepreneurship or social responsibility. Both tracks require the participant to deliver a presentation as if they were making a real pitch for funding—dressing in formal business attire and including an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

7. Diamond Challenge   

Date(s): 1/7/21-4/23/22

Type: National 

This well-known high school business competition is an initiative of Horn Entrepreneurship

at the University of Delaware. The challenge features two tracks for participants to compete, business innovation and social innovation. Both tracks require participants to work in teams of two to four students, to submit a concept narrative, and provide a pitch deck. Diamond Challenge offers substantial awards to its winners—first place takes home $11,000, second place $7,500, and third place $3,750. 

8. Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students  

Date(s): 9/22-11/22

This Pirates Pitch Competition for High School Students is provided by Seton Hall University and is aimed at teaching high schoolers the basics of entrepreneurship and idea generation. To enter the competition, participants must submit a business idea in 350 words or less. Finalists will need to pitch their idea to judges in a live virtual event. Competition winners receive both a cash prize and a generous scholarship to Seton Hall.

9. Yale DHSRI High School Investment Competition

Dates: 2/22-4/22

The Yale DHSRI High School Investment Competition is hosted by the Dwight Hall Socially Responsible Investment Fund at Yale University, the nation’s oldest undergraduate-run socially responsible investment fund. Competing in teams of two or four students, high schoolers (students in grades nine through 12 are eligible to participate) build a portfolio using $100,000 in virtual funds and ultimately submit a final investment report that outlines their strategy, learning process, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) themes. 

10. DECA Challenges

Dates: Varies 

For three-quarters of a century, DECA has been helping to prepare future entrepreneurs and leaders in marketing, finance, and hospitality. DECA has more than 3,000 high school chapters and 175,000 members. Throughout the year, DECA issues many challenges to its members, many of which are business focused and require participants to demonstrate specific skills and knowledge.  

11. tecBRIDGE High School Business Plan Competition 

Dates: 3/18/22-4/21/22 

STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math)-based business is at the heart of the tecBridge High School Business Plan Competition. Participants are expected to create sustainable and scalable concepts, answer a series of questions, and deliver a ten-minute-long presentation. Students are also expected to demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, and top-notch presentation skills.

12. The Big Idea Competition 

Date(s): 10/31/22-12/7/22

Young entrepreneurs are challenged to think of ways to make the world a better place to live by using business to implement change in this high school business competition. The competition is open to all high school students and requires them to submit a 1,075-word description of their business idea. Nearly $35,000 in prizes are awarded annually, including a $1,000 first prize. 

13. High School Utah Entrepreneur Challenge (HSUEC)

Date(s): 2/21/21-3/26/22

Type: State

Utah high school students ages 14 to 18 can show off their entrepreneurial spirit and innovative ideas in this business competition. Students are encouraged to form teams of up to five students to compete in the HSUEC and are required to submit a business proposal that details:

• the opportunity or problem the business/product addresses
• the solution or improvement the business/product provides
• the market the business/product competes in, its target customer, and what sets it apart from the competition 

Participants must also submit a prototype in any medium of what their idea, product, or service will look like. 

14. West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition 

Date(s): 11/12/22-4/6/22 

The West Virginia High School Business Plan Competition is open to West Virginia students in grades nine through 12. The competition is aimed at helping high schoolers learn how to move a business idea from conception to action. Participants can compete either as an individual or in teams of up to four people. Submissions to the contest are in the form of a maximum 90-second YouTube video that addresses three key points:

• the business product or service
• the problem or opportunity and why is it a problem or opportunity 
• the customer and how the product/service solves their problem

15. Wisconsin High School Business Model Competition

Date(s): 4/20/22 – 5/21/22 

This awesome business competition—open to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors—is presented by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Students can compete alone or in teams of up to three and are asked to present an idea or solution to a problem that could lead to a business. Finalists will need to deliver a four-minute-long pitch to a panel of judges. Prizes include cash awards as well as scholarships to UW Oshkosh.  

Business competitions can have varying levels of influence on your odds of getting accepted into college. Everything from the prestige of the competition to where you are placed to the value a college places on extracurricular activities like business competitions can impact the weight they’re given by an admissions office.

The four tiers of extracurricular activities are useful for better understanding how colleges consider your activities outside of the classroom. Top-tier activities (those in tiers one and two) include participation in the most well-thought-of and distinguished competitions. Winning or placing highly in a top-tier competition can significantly improve your admissions odds. Less prominent and lesser-known competitions fall into tiers three and four. Lower-tiered activities don’t hold the same sway over admissions offices and have less effect on admissions chances. 

Interested in learning how your participation in a business competition influences your odds of getting into your dream school? CollegeVine can help! Our free chancing calculator considers factors such as grades, test scores, and extracurriculars to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of colleges and universities while also providing insight into how to improve your profile.

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• Youth Program
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Wharton Global High School Investment Competition

Registration for the 2024-2025 competition is closed., the wharton global high school investment competition is a free, experiential investment challenge for high school students (9th to 12th grade) and teachers. students work in teams of four to seven, guided by a teacher as their advisor, and have access to an online stock market simulator. together, they learn about strategy-building, teamwork, communication, risk, diversification, company and industry analysis, and many other aspects of investing., about the competition.

Teams examine a short case study featuring a potential client (a real Wharton graduate working in business) and are tasked with collaborating to meet that client’s long-term investment goals as they try to win his or her business. Equipped with approved stock, exchange-traded fund (ETF), and U.S. Treasury Bond lists as well as the Wharton Investment Simulator (WInS), which allows them to buy and sell stocks and ETFs, over the course of 10 weeks students develop an investment strategy, analyze industries and companies, and build a portfolio using $100,000 in virtual cash. Winners are selected on the strength and articulation of their team strategies, not on the growth of their portfolios, which is a key differentiator between this investment challenge and others. During the competition each team submits two deliverables.

Final reports are reviewed by a team of judges, who select 50 semifinalist teams. Those teams are invited to present their strategies to a panel of expert judges at the virtual Semifinals. The top 10 teams from the Semifinals move on to the Global Finale at Wharton in Philadelphia.

Important Dates

Numbers from last year’s investment competition.

* 2023-2024 Participation Numbers

Why Join the Competition?

• It’s run by the Wharton School, a world leader in business education
• You get to explore the exciting world of securities and strategies
• You learn about risk, diversification, company and industry analysis and more investing basics
• You develop teamwork, leadership and communication skills
• You enhance your college and scholarship applications by building your résumé
• You have a chance to compete against teams from around the world
• You learn finance skills that will last a lifetime
• It’s free and fun!

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