| Strategic
Marketing Practices in the Indian Television Industry
-- B Anita and D Pradeep Kumar
This
paper presents the findings of a field study of strategic marketing practices
in the Indian television industry. The findings reveal the complexities that organizations
face while adopting strategic marketing principles. The study assesses the market
response towards the strategic marketing practices of television marketers and
the strategic implementation of these practices from the perspective of the dealers.
The paper concludes with a few recommendations for television marketers. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
An Evaluation of
Alternative Development Strategies for Robusta Coffee in Uganda
-- Liangzhi You and Simon Bolwig Coffee
is the most important export crop in Uganda and an important source of income
for smallholder farmers in large parts of the country. This paper first investigates
the challenges and opportunities faced by the Ugandan coffee industry, especially
the decline in the world coffee market, changes in procurement strategies among
coffee importers, the rapidly expanding market for high quality and specialty
coffees, and the spread of the coffee wilt disease in Uganda. The authors examine
the possible development strategies for Ugandan coffee production within the general
types `production/productivity increase' or `quality improvement'. Using IFPRI's
Dynamic Research Evaluation for Management (DREAM) model, different scenarios
for each type of strategy are evaluated to show their potential impacts on Ugandan
export prices, export revenues, and producer gross benefits. The authors then
discuss the constraints to and feasibility of development interventions that might
achieve the simulated production and quality increases. Notwithstanding the oversupply
of coffee in the world market, the authors' analyses suggest that Uganda would
benefit from moderately increasing Robusta coffee production as well as from enhancing
bean quality and diversifying into sustainable coffees. High and reliable output
must be accompanied with, and depend on, reductions in the unit cost of production
in order to maintain or raise farm profitability and investment incentives given
that prices are likely to remain low. An aggressive production growth strategy,
on the other hand, would engage Uganda in a `race-to-the-bottom' competition with
other producer countries if these adopt similar strategies. Quality interventions
that focus on increasing bean size for mainstream coffee appear attractive due
to the significant and direct effect of prices, the relatively low resource requirements
of most technologies, and the added effects of larger beans on yields. Support
to the production and marketing of differentiated coffees, particularly productions
that combine organic and other sustainability certifications, also appear attractive.
Such interventions should be carefully targeted, since relatively few farmers
possess the necessary resources to produce for this market, and must be based
on thorough market analysis given the high entry barriers to the specialty coffee
market. The implementation of both productivity and quality enhancing strategies
require a higher level of organization in the industryhorizontally among small
farmers, and vertically among producers, traders, and roasters. ©
2006 Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen, Denmark. This
paper was first published as DIIS Working paper No. 2006/16 (www.diis.dk). Reprinted
with permission. Corporate
Strategy and Operational Reality: Why Managers Do What They Do!
-- Sue Hornibrook and Samantha Lynch
This
paper contributes to the management debate regarding the gap between intended
corporate strategy and operational reality by examining the relationships between
senior executives and line managers within the multiple store retail industry.
Using a case study methodology and an Agency theory perspective, the research
investigates the implementation of two operational policies designed to achieve
corporate strategyemployment and supplier relationship policies. The findings
reveal that the incentives offered in the principal-agent relationship drove the
behavior of line managers. Managers sought to maximize their rewards by focusing
efforts on surrogate measures designed to evaluate performance. The research concludes
that organizational long-run considerations are counteracted by reward systems
for employees, that encourage behavior that focuses on short-run sales and earnings
at the expense of long-term growth and development. ©
2005 Sue Hornibrook and Samantha Lynch. This paper was first published by Kent
Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK (www.kent.ac.uk). Reprinted
with permission. Case
Study SABMiller's
Human Capital Proposition: Institutionalizing a Performance Culture
-- Debapratim
Purkayastha and Rajiv Fernando ©
2006 ICMR. All Rights Reserved. For
accessing and procuring this case study, log on to www.ecch.com or www.icmrindia.org.
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