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The Amsterdam Living Case Lab

Where theory meets practice

Welcome to the Amsterdam Living Case Lab (ALCL), an initiative of the Amsterdam Business School and the Amsterdam School of Economics. We raise the standard of education by bringing real life business challenges, 'living cases', into the classrooms.

We believe that the most effective education is when theory meets practice, when students are challenged with real-world scenarios, and when learning becomes truly immersive.

The living case method

The living case method provides students with invaluable practical experience, helping them tackle authentic challenges, and develop crucial skills and networks for their future careers. For organizations, this collaboration fosters innovative problem-solving, offers cost-effective consulting services, enhances brand exposure, expands networking opportunities, and facilitates recruiting top talent.

For the master course 'Cases in Retail Marketing' students worked on a one-day case. At the end of the day, they presented their findings to the senior leaders of Hema, followed by an interactive debate on the topic
For the master course 'Consumer Behaviour', students worked on a six-week case where they had to develop a marketing strategy for a company. At the end of the course, all student groups shared their strategies with the company, Let’s Cook

Call for cases

Is your organisation facing a challenge that you would like to share with students? Are you looking for fresh insights from our bright students? The Amsterdam Living Case Lab is always looking for company partners and interesting challenges to solve.  We welcome collaboration with all organisations: startups, SMEs, multinationals, public institutions, government bodies, NGOs, and cultural institutions.

Collaboration opportunities
  • 6 week case     
    • Join a course and present your company’s current challenge. Tell us about your organization and what problem we can work on.
    • Student teams work with academic supervisors using leading-edge methods and frameworks on the case challenge. Companies can provide further coaching as necessary.
    • Join the final session where teams present their findings, recommendations, and solutions at the end of the course. Provide feedback and gain insights from student teams.
  • One day / One week case
    • Students visit the company or company representatives join the lecture on campus in Amstedam.
    • Presentation of the case by the company representative.
    • Students have from 2 hours to one week to solve the case and pitch their solution to the company representative.
  • Guest lecture
    • Join a lecture and meet our students and faculty. Tell us about your organization and share your current challenges with the students.
    • Faculty can provide the framing for a topic that is both relevant to the students and of interest to your company.
    • Guest lectures are a great way to refresh your perspective and also present your future recruitment needs to talented students.

Use Cases in our Programmes

UvA Economics and Business offers a variety of programmes that integrate living cases into the curriculum. Here are some sample cases:

  • How can accounting contribute to the sustainability goals of the company?
  • How can data support strategic decisions such as optimizing workforce capacity, warehouse location, and inventory levels, or pricing based on consumer behavior?
  • How to motivate young savers to change their behaviour and convert into investors?
  • How to keep entrepreneurial spirit in a big corporation?
  • How can company achieve growth aligned with their sustainability targets?
  • How to improve online marketing campaign?
  • What are the effective tools to reduce unemployment?
  • What are the most effective incentives to have more women in top positions?

Contact

Interested in exploring partnership opportunities and learn more about Amsterdam Living Case Lab? Please send an email to livingcaselab-eb@uva.nl.