Kofi Q. Dadzie

Country‐of‐origin effects in service evaluation in emerging markets: some insights from five West African countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore country‐of‐origin (COO) effects on service evaluation in an emerging market.Design/methodology/approach – To gain insight, 24 in‐depth interviews were conducted with stakeholders in five West African countries. A conjoint analysis was also conducted to further explore COO effects.Findings – Propositions were developed based on findings from the qualitative study and conjoint analysis. Situational personal characteristics, such as motivation and ability to process information, may influence use of COO attributes in evaluating a service. Individual characteristics, such as ethnocentrism and culture orientation, may influence COO preference in service evaluation.Practical implications – Propositions and findings will assist firms considering entering a market in terms of service offerings and positioning strategies.Originality/value – While COO and consumer products have been widely studied in the literature, mostly within the contexts of industrialized natio...

Business‐to‐business marketing practices in West Africa, Argentina and the United States

Purpose – This study aims to examine the nature of business‐to‐business marketing practices in two West African nations, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and compare them with marketing practices in another emerging market economy (Argentina) and a developed economy (the USA).Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected in both West African nations, Argentina and the USA, using a standard survey instrument used in previous contemporary marketing practice (CMP) studies. Descriptive statistics were used to determine cross‐national differences in intensity of use of various CMP activities in Ghana and the Ivory Coast in comparison with Argentina and the USA. Then, cross‐national differences in various combinations of marketing practices were identified using cluster analysis.Findings – Business‐to‐business marketing practices in West African nations conform with the CMP framework in that firms practise both transactional marketing and relationship marketing simultaneously. However, there are differences in...

Measurement equivalence and applicability of core marketing concepts across Nigerian, Kenyan, Japanese and US firms

Establishing the validity and measurement equivalence of core marketing concepts in the emerging market economies of Africa is a key step in assessing the transferability of modern marketing theory and managerial practice to these countries. However, measurement equivalence issues are rarely addressed in studies of marketing practices in Africa. Accordingly, this study examines the equivalence of core marketing concepts based on interviews of 459 marketing managers from Kenya, Nigeria, Japan and the USA. The results show that optimal scaling analysis of the managers’ evaluations provide more valid and meaningful assessment than that of the raw data. The managers’ evaluations of the concepts revealed amazingly similar or prototypical perceptions of marketing’s core concepts and its applicability in their organizations, despite the profound country environmental differences. It appears that the concepts fall into two cross‐national categories of applicability that permeate the industrialized and developing country categorization. Managerial and research implications are discussed.

Organizational Culture, Competitive Strategy, and Performance in Ghana

The influence of competitive strategy on the organizational culture and performance relationship in Ghana is examined in this study using structural equation modeling. Results suggest evidence of both direct and indirect effects of organizational culture on firm performance. Firms with a predominantly clan or market culture were more likely to be directly associated with performance, whereas firms with adhocracy or hierarchy cultures were more likely to be indirectly associated with performance, depending on their alignment with a differentiation strategy or cost leadership strategy. However, only the link with differentiation strategy resulted in market performance. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Which UGC features drive web purchase intent? A spike-and-slab Bayesian Variable Selection Approach

– The purpose of this paper is to identify user-generated content (UGC) features that determine web purchase decision making. , – The authors embed a spike-and-slab Bayesian variable selection mechanism into a logistic regression model to identify the UGC features that are critical to web purchase intent. This enables us to make a highly reliable analysis of survey data. , – The results indicate that the web purchase decision is driven by the relevance, up-to-dateness and credibility of the UGC information content. , – The results show that the characteristics of UGC are seen as positive and the medium enables consumers to sort information and concentrate on aspects of the message that are similar to traditional word-of-mouth (WOM). One important implication is the relative importance of credibility which has been previously hypothesized to be lower in the electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) context. The results show that consumers consider credibility important as the improved technology provides more possibilities to find out about that factor. A limitation is that the data are not fully representative of the general population but our Bayesian method gives us high analytical quality. , – The study shows that UGC impacts consumer online purchase intentions. Marketers should understand the wide range of media that provide UGC and they should concentrate on the relevance, up-to-dateness and credibility of product information that they provide. , – The analytical quality of the spike- and- slab Bayesian method suggests a new way of understanding the impact of aspects of UGC on consumers.

How Firms Implement Marketing Strategies in Emerging Markets: An Empirical Assessment of The 4A Marketing Mix Framework

This study evaluates the applicability of the 4As marketing mix activities (i.e., affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and awareness) in emerging market conditions, using Ghana as the empirical context. Two-thirds of firms in the sample report medium-to-high use of all the 4As. Only affordability and accessibility marketing mix activities lead to market share performance (demand aggregation advantage), while all 4A activities lead to financial performance. Further, the regulatory environment moderates the relationship between affordability and market share performance. Thus, the study results suggest that emerging markets firms emphasize different components of the 4A marketing mix for optimal effectiveness.

Competing with Marketing Channels and Logistics in Africa's Booming Markets: An Investigation of Emerging Supply Chain Management Practices in Ghana

Using Ghana as the African context for testing the applicability of supply chain management, this study reveals that firms there place less emphasis on logistics and channels management practices relative to product and pricing marketing mix elements. However, this situation is changing in response to the perceived positive impact of the regulatory and technological environment on market-share competitive performance. Those firms that emphasize integration of both logistics and channels management practices exhibited the strongest competitive market-share and financial performance; firms whose practices placed moderate emphasis on both logistics and channels management integration reported moderate levels of market-share and financial performance. These results suggest that firms in Ghana compete along a continuum of supply chain integration primarily on the basis of the increasingly market-oriented business environment.

Thank You and Farewell

It is difficult to believe that six years have passed since my appointment as Editor of the Journal of African Business (JAB) in August of 2004. Since then, I have learned a great deal about the journal editing process, and developed a greater appreciation for the role of knowledge dissemination and its importance to our career development as African business researchers. As this issue marks the last one under my tenure as Editor, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been associated with the journal in one way or another. You played a significant role in sustaining the JAB as the leading academic, peer-reviewed journal, publishing research exclusively on African business issues. I would also like to take this opportunity to share a few insights into the challenges that face us as African business scholars. When I took over the editorship of the JAB, the journal was already well received by members of the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD) as the premier scholarly journal on African business issues. Among the primary challenges were to: (1) increase the quality of the manuscripts published in the journal, (2) improve the consistency of on-time publication of issues, (3) improve the overall perceived quality of the journal, and (4) increase the number of issues published in a year. Addressing these challenges was viewed as the means to laying the critical foundation for attaining international recognition of the JAB as the premier journal, comparable to other premier journals. An overview of the performance of the journal throughout the past three years affirms that we met all four goals. The acceptance rate has hovered around 16% during the past three years, down from 25% in 2004 when the JAB was acquired by IAABD. This improvement is due in part to the large number of submissions received from IAABD conference authors. Moreover, all issues published on schedule largely because of the dramatic progress in manuscript processing time. International recognition of the overall perceived quality is also on the increase as evidenced by the inclusion of the JAB in several international journal rankings in the past few years. For example, the JAB was included in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science ranking of marketing journals and in the Australian Business School Deans’ rankings of business journals. Considering the JAB’s unique focus on Africa, its appearance in general journal rankings attests to the increasing recognition of the quality Journal of African Business, 11:143–145, 2010 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1522-8916 print=1522-9076 online DOI: 10.1080/15228916.2010.508990