Marketing in developing countries: The new frontier

The macro role of marketing is widely viewed as one of promoting economic growth, and macromarketing as being concerned with designing an efficient and fair marketing system to facilitate an economy's flow of goods from producers to consumers and accomplish the objectives of society. While empirical evidence is generally supportive of numerous economic and societal benefits resulting from marketing activities, concern regarding the underdeveloped state of marketing systems in Third World countries, and their inability to fully exploit the potentialities of marketing as an instrument for economic development has been widely expressed in marketing literature. In light of the above, the merits in viewing marketing as a formative influence on economic development and the potential role of the government in improving marketing systems and processes in Third World countries are discussed in this paper.     

Women entrepreneurs in and from developing countries: Evidences from the literature

Entrepreneurship has a leading role in economic development worldwide and, although it has usually been considered as a male dominated activity, recent studies emphasize how significant the contribution of women today is: in 2010, almost 42% of entrepreneurs in the world were, indeed, women (GEM, 2010).     

SCOR model application in developing countries: challenges & requirements

Due to the changes in the nature of business and competition from company versus company to supply chain versus supply chain, the importance of improving the entire supply chain holistically is becoming an increasingly important topic in recent studies. Industry practitioners and academics are focusing on developing a modelling tool for this purpose. However, such efforts were unsuccessful. The main reasons for failure are that the existing models are developed and tested based on the experiences of manufacturing firms in the developed world. The nature of the existing firms, their operating and business processes situation in developing countries vary greatly from the manufacturing processes and the surrounding environment in developed countries. However, the absence of an agreed upon, common language and standardised modelling tools for the entire supply chains hampers the global supply chain improvement initiatives. This paper focuses on addressing the issue of a how standardised and widely accepted model, like the SCOR, can be applied despite the different circumstances. The firms’ supply chain characteristics and new requirement for the model adaptation were collected based on the available literature and field analysis results. The research paper results focus on the make and delivery processes for illustration and evaluation.     

Supplies from developing countries: Optimal order quantities under loss risks

When raw material suppliers of a global supply chain are situated in developing countries, not only will there be long lead times but there could also be a possibility of material losses in transit. The magnitude of the losses will be uncertain and can be significant. We consider the optimization of order quantity decisions in such situations. The long lead times imply that we need to take into account the uncertainty in finished goods demands for which the raw materials are to be ordered. The order quantities have to be optimized carefully as they determine the “real options” that become available later in production plans. Using data from the plywood industry and using stochastic programming we demonstrate a method for solving such problems. The method combines simulation and optimization. An interesting observation we make is that the optimal order quantity of a material need not be monotonic in expected loss of that material. In addition, we offer explanations as to why the expected loss need not be monotonic.     

Returnable transport packaging in developing countries: drivers,barriers and business performance

Abstract

This study, drawing on natural resource-based view, identifies drivers, barriers and the potential benefits of returnable transport packaging (RTP) – that is, the repeated use of packaging items – and conceptualises RTP as a technology and resource that supports organisational competitiveness. Specifically, it investigates the impact of RTP adoption on business performance, the effects of drivers, barriers and size of organisations. The data collection took place in Nigeria and South Africa. The findings suggest that RTP has a significant positive impact on business performance. Whilst prior studies seem to suggest that shrinkage and attrition are the major problems identified with the usage of RTP, our findings indicate that there are several other barriers affecting RTP adoption and the resultant performance advantage. The results also show that there is an increasing move towards adoption of RTP but some organisations are faced with financial constraints, especially the small and medium size enterprises. In addition, the results show that RTP is largely a ‘sustainability facing’ initiative with adopters motivated primarily by potential environmental, economic, social and operational benefits of adoption.     

Global change in agrifood grades and standards: agribusiness strategic responses in developing countries

The role of G&S has shifted from a technical instrument to reduce transaction costs in homogeneous commodity markets to a strategic instrument of competition in differentiated product markets. The nature of G&S has shifted from performance (realized characteristics of the product) to process standards. In developing countries, these changes have tended to exclude small firms and farms from participating in market growth, because of the implied investments. The three strategic responses to G&S change by agribusiness firms and farms include: (1) by large firms and multinationals, to create private G&S and private certification, labeling, and branding systems; (2) by medium-large domestic firms, to lobby governments to adopt public G&S similar to those in export markets in developed regions; (3) by small firms and farms, to ally with public and nonprofit sectors to form G&S and certification systems to access export markets and to bring institutional change to nontradable product markets. Governments should build the capacity of the poor to invest to “make the grade” implied by the new G&S.     

Multiple criteria decision making for maritime investment policy in the developing countries

This model for multiple criteria decision making enables one to select an optimal investment policy for developing the marine industry in developing countries. The model is composed of: the mathematical model of national economy (LP model) for optimizing an investment scheme under economic and technological constraints; the model of I-O analysis for estimating the change of industrial structures induced by the investment; and the decision making model to which the results of the preceding models are fed back so as to enable the policy planner to select a feasible policy based on his own multiple criteria such as the value of GDP growth rate, international payments, unemployment rate, etc. Due consideration is paid in this study to the role of the marine industries, e.g. shipping and ports, which can be said to be the pivot of economic development in a developing country in connection with its foreign trade policy. A case study is carried out to verify this hypothesis.     

Management science in the United States and Europe: A decade of change in the literature

This paper focuses upon the investigation of change in the management science literature from 1965 to 1974. Both subject areas and reported areas of implementation are investigated. The study classifies the content of each article published during the past decade in the following set of European and American journals: United States—Management Science; British—Operational Research Quarterly; and German—Zeitscrift für Operations Research. A comparison of the results along both inter and intra country dimensions is presented.     

Process modelling and industrial energy use in developing countries—The steel industry in India

A process model is used to study energy use and conservation in the steel industry in India. Production is modelled by a set of inter-connected process activities, each of which defines unique relationships between process output and a number of inputs. Contrary to that in process models for the U.S., we do not assume cost minimizing behavior. Simulation results show that although a number of cost-effective energy conservation measures exist, none of them would lead to significant reductions in energy use. Effective policy for the Indian Steel industry would require combining the strategies.     

Adopting the Municipal Enterprise Form in Finland: Core Dilemmas in the Transformation of Public Healthcare Organizations

Using a combination of institutional and dilemma theory, this article maps the core dilemmas underlying the transformation of three public healthcare organizations into municipal enterprises. The results concerning the expectations and outcomes of the processes of change show that identified dilemmas affect the isomorphic institutional process by either diminishing or enhancing isomorphic forces. Further analysis reveals the unconscious use of the dilemma reconciliation method among the senior managers and other decision-makers in the organizations. The discussion illustrates how dilemmas, together with isomorphic forces, are connected to decision-making. It highlights the need to investigate strategic dilemma management as a tool for resolving contradictory aims in the public healthcare sector.     

Hofstede's cultural dimensions in the GCC countries: An empirical investigation

Managerial values are not the same across the world. Therefore, Multinational Corporations may be making costly decisions if they assume that corporate policies will receive the same attention, understanding or acceptance in their branches over the world. This paper applies Hofstede's four cultural dimensions to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It also compares Hofstede's results with regard to these four cultural dimensions with our findings. The results of this study show that countries change. They reemphasize the concept that ethnocentric management theories have been untenable. This implies the necessity that Multinational Corporations should study the culture of the country they plan to do business with before starting the negotiations process that precedes the operations in that country and also to monitor changes in the life style of these countries over time. When Multinational Corporations become aware of the international workforce management and the differences between different cultures, they will save themselves costly troubles, loss of qualified personnel as well as loosing international customers. Therefore, it is important for Multinational Corporations to utilize management theories available to them through research and experience.The program leading to this article was supported in part by a grant from KFUPM.     

Alternative tourism : Towards a new style in North-South relations

This paper defines the scope, purpose and rationale of alternative tourism (AT) — a form of tourism in which the client receives accommodation in the home of the host. AT appears to offer a range of social and economic opportunities, particularly for the developing countries. The aims and methods of a research project into AT potential are specified, and the preliminary research results are reported.     

Political leaders in the SYMLOG space: Perceptions of right and left wing leaders by right and left wing constituencies

Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG) was applied to studying images of political leaders. Three left wing and three right wing Israeli leaders were evaluated by left and right wing voters along the SYMLOG's three dimensions—friendliness, task orientation, and dominance. It was found that right wing voters rated right wing leaders higher on friendliness and task orientation than left wing leaders. In a similar fashion, left wing voters viewed left wing leaders as more friendly and task-oriented than right wing leaders. Leaders of the right were viewed as more dominant than leaders of the left by left and right wing voters alike. Right and left wing voters assigned different SYMLOG types to right and left wing leaders. The dimension that distinguished between the various images was the dimension of friendliness. Whereas for right wing voters, all images of right wing leaders included a component of friendliness, none of these three images included an accented component of friendliness when rated by left wing voters. In a similar fashion, left wing voters saw two out of the three left wing leaders as including a component of friendliness, whereas none of the three left wing images included this component for right wing voters. Respondents from the right and the left rated their “ideal leader” as reflecting values of “dominance”, “friendliness,” and “task-orientation”. However, respondents saw leaders affiliated with their own political camp as closer to their image of the ideal leader on friendliness and task-orientation than leaders of the opposite political camp. Both right and left wing voters saw all political leaders as equally similar to their image of “ideal leader” on the “dominance” dimension regardless of that leader's political affiliation.     

A management science application in the courtroom: A jury selection model

This paper reports the results of a study involving the application of management science techniques to the area of jury research. A public opinion survey was conducted, entered in evidence in a motion for change of venue, and the survey data used to develop a jury selection model used by the defense in a second-degree murder trial. The case had involved considerable pre-trial publicity. From a defense perspective, the defendant received the least undesirable guilty verdict. Management science techniques employed involved statistical sampling, linear discriminant function, and regression analysis. Suggestions for other applications in jury research are offered.     

Hiring and firing: the right and legal way.

Is any decision higher risk than hiring a new employee? You're betting your time and the organization's dollars, effectiveness, and reputation on your decision. No wonder people want to have candidates CAT scanned! There are ways to reduce the risk of a wrong decision (or, if that happens, to correct it), all within current legal guidelines. We talked with Fred R. Kimmel, a partner with the law firm of Arvey, Hodes, Costello & Burman, Chicago, and a specialist in labor and employment law, about both effectiveness and legality. This article reports on a plan for hiring and firing the right way.