Simon Pierre Sigué

Dynamic cooperative advertising in a channel

Abstract The paper studies a two-member channel in which a manufacturer and an exclusive retailer can make advertising expenditures that have both short and long term impacts on the retailer’s sales. The manufacturer can also support both retailer’s advertising efforts through a cooperative advertising program. Four scenarios are considered. In the first, which acts as a benchmark, the manufacturer provides no support to the retailer’s advertising. In the second, the manufacturer supports both types of retailer advertising. In the two remaining cases, the manufacturer supports only one of the two types of retailer advertising efforts. In all cases we assume that the manufacturer wishes to coordinate the channel so as to obtain maximal profits for himself. Our analysis of these options shows that supporting both types of retailer advertising provides more profit to both channel members than any of the two cases of partial support. The latter is, however, better than no support. We derive managerial implications from the theoretical results.

Stackelberg Leadership In A Marketing Channel

This paper provides an answer to the question who should, if any, lead a marketing channel? We consider a channel consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer where each player controls his advertising rate and margin. Supposing that advertising has a carry over effect on demand, we adopt a dynamic model. Nash and Stackelberg equilibria are characterised and outcomes compared with an efficient coordinated solution. Our findings suggest that manufacturers leadership reduces inefficiency in a channel and is more beneficial to the consumer.

Accelerating foreign direct investment flow to Africa: from policy statements to successful strategies

Purpose – The growing investment gap and the declining foreign aid in recent years have compelled many African countries to turn to foreign direct investment (FDI) as a means to avoid development financing constraints. This article seeks to examine the performance of FDI flow to various regions and countries in Africa and the implication(s) on FDI of the recently launched new partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) programs. Design/methodology/approach - Explores strategies for accelerating the flow of FDI to Africa, especially the implications of NEPAD programs. Findings -Africas FDI inflows are highly uneven both between regions and between countries depending on economic and political environment. In addition, if implemented successfully, NEPAD programs would help spur the flow of FDI to Africa. Originality/value - Besides the socio-economic policy recommendations, suggests marketing strategies to help increase the flow of FDI to Africa.

Advertising strategies in a franchise system

The main question of this research is: Who should undertake promotional and brand-image advertising if the franchisor and franchisees act so as to maximize their respective profits? To address this question, we study a two-stage advertising game between a franchisor and two adjacent franchisees. In the first stage of the game, the franchisor chooses between three advertising models - centralizing or delegating the two types of advertising to the franchisees or delegating only promotional advertising. In the second stage, given the franchisors choice of an advertising model, the two franchisees decide whether or not to cooperate. Our main findings are that (1) the franchisees should cooperate if the franchisor delegates either both brand-image and promotional advertising or promotional advertising, although cooperation between franchisees does not necessary improve the franchisors profits. (2) The choice of an advertising arrangement critically depends on the margins as well as the costs of performing both promotional and brand-image advertising. We also discuss the conditions under which the three advertising models should be implemented.

Transactions vs. Relationships: What Should the Company Emphasize?

The relevance of transactional and relational marketing variables in relational exchanges is now well established in the marketing literature. However, the knowledge about their relative effectiveness and their optimal mix over time remains very sparse. An analytical model is proposed to help determine optimal decision rules for transactional and relational marketing efforts. Some of the main results are as follows: (a) If the seller benefits from the interaction between the transactional marketing effort and buyer’s commitment, then the seller’s optimal decision rules change over time and depend on the level of the partners’commitment. (b) Otherwise, the seller’s optimal decision rules for the two types of marketing are constant over time. (c) The seller should allocate more resources to relational marketing at the beginning of a relational exchange and, later on, should allocate more resources to transactional marketing.

Corruption and International Trade: An Empirical Investigation of African Countries

This paper attempts to estimate the effect of corruption on the flows of exports and imports of African countries. Using the gravity model approach and annual data for the period 1998–2007, we obtain negative and statistically significant correlations between the values of exports and imports and the levels of corruption in Africa and trading partners. Thus the results support the view that corruption adversely affects international trade. Our estimates suggest that if a country with Africa’s average corruption perception index of 2.8 were to improve its corruption level to Botswana’s 5.9, its exports would improve by about 15 per cent and imports by about 27 per cent.

Managing Relational Exchanges

The authors propose an analytic model that deals with both behavioral considerations between exchange partners and the determination of relational marketing efforts over time. On the basis of the behavioral marketing literature, they consider three main factors that drive the levels of relational commitments between two exchange partners: the trust/distrust component, the opportunism component, and the relational marketing effort of the seller. Incorporating these factors in a well-known model used in appliedmathematics for “love dynamics,” the authors claim that the issue of managing relational exchanges is an optimal control problem. Their analysis shows that the seller’s optimal policy for determining relational marketing effort over time is either time-invariant or time-variant, depending on whether or not the exchange partners are conservative and the structural and contextual environment of the relationship remains unchanged over time.

Strengthening the Position of a Premier Outlet for African Business Research

As a result of the leadership, vision, dedication, and exceptional hard work by my elders and distinguished predecessors, Dr. Sam Okoroafo and Dr. Kofi Dadzie, the Journal of African Business (JAB) has experienced extraordinary developments since its introduction in 2000. JAB’s prestige is at an all-time high given that the journal is now established as the premier academic journal for scholars seeking to publish cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research that advances theories and=or business practices with or within Africa. We owe a great deal to several individuals who have contributed their ideas, time, energy, and scholarly work to realize JAB’s exceptional achievement. I particularly pay tribute to Dr. Kofi Dadzie for the excellent job he has done during his editorship, and I sincerely thank him for supporting and mentoring me during the long transition period. It is a great honor to replace him as editor of this leading journal of the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD). This inaugural editorial (a) gives a brief overview of JAB’s trajectory during the first 11 years and discusses a few new developments that affect African business research; (b) lays out my vision for JAB and presents my major initiatives; (c) introduces the new Editorial Policy Advisory Board (EPAB) and Editorial Review Board (ERB) members; and (d) concludes with a call to join forces and transform JAB into a ‘‘star’’ journal.

Trade deals and/or on-package coupons

The selection of either a pull or a push price promotion has mainly been investigated in contexts where manufacturers offer deals to consumers at the time of purchase or offer trade deals to retailers. This paper extends this framework to where manufacturers can offer either trade deals or rebate-like promotions to consumers such as on-pack coupons that stimulate the first and second purchases or a combination of the two promotion vehicles. It is demonstrated that the decision to implement either of the three promotion options critically depends, among other factors, on the percentage of first-time buyers who redeem their coupons at the second purchase. Particularly, a necessary condition to simultaneously offer both a trade deal and coupons is to have a positive coupon redemption rate. When possible, manufacturers prefer on-pack coupons over trade deals to take advantage of slippage and to further increase the overall demand via coupon-induced repeat purchase. Manufacturers are more likely to take the lion’s share of channel profits.

Defensive, Offensive, and Generic Advertising in a Lanchester Model with Market Growth

The paper considers a duopolistic market in which firms compete over time through their respective advertising efforts. In contrast to earlier work in advertising competition, the paper supposes that each firm may choose among three types of advertising: offensive advertising which has the purpose of attracting customers from the rival firm, defensive advertising which aims at protecting a firm’s customer base from the competitors’ attacks, and generic advertising which aims at enhancing industry sales. We address questions like: How should an advertising strategy, for each of the three types of advertising effort, be designed? How would the corresponding time paths of sales look like? The paper uses differential game theory to answer these questions and provides closed-form analytical expressions for equilibrium advertising strategies and sales rate paths. It is found that advertising strategies can be expressed in terms of the shadow prices of the firms’ sales rates and the model parameters. Two combinations of theses advertising are optimal: all three advertising together and both offensive and defensive advertising. As to the latter, an essential assumption is that offensive advertising is more cost-effective than defensive advertising.