Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: After the deregulation of the South African deciduous fruit industry in 1997 an unregulated grape marketing environment replaced the single channel marketing system. Many new South African grape exporters were now involved in an uncoordinated and uncooperative marketing environment. Each marketing organisation implemented their own marketing plans resulting in an increase in competition among South African suppliers. The South African grape supplies originate from various production areas, each with their unique characteristics and qualities, making it a very competitive environment. South African grapes also share the various markets with other competing Southern Hemisphere grape suppliers. This level of competition makes it very important for the South African grape industry to have a uniform marketing strategy. To achieve a uniform industry marketing strategy the industry has to develop a common vision - to be the preferred table grape supplier in our target markets - that forms the basis of developing a generic South African table grape marketing strategy. A single vision gives the competitive export companies a common marketing objective. This study includes recommendations to industry stakeholders that will enable them to formulate their own marketing strategy, all within the guidelines of the common vision that is adjusted to the specific needs of their respective target markets. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Na die deregulering van die Suid-Afrikaanse sagtevrugtebedryf in 1997 het 'n ongereguleerde bemarkingsomgewing die enkelkanaalbemarking vervang. Verskeie nuwe Suid-Afrikaanse tafeldruifuitvoerders was nou betrokke by 'n ongekoërdineerde bemarkingsomgewing waar daar geen samewerking tussen uitvoerders was nie. Elke bemarkingsagent het sy eie bemarkingsplan gevolg wat gelei het tot 'n toename in kompetisie tussen Suid-Afrikaanse produsente. Die Suid-Afrikaanse tafeldruiwe word in verskillende produksieareas geoes, elk met hul unieke eienskappe en kwaliteite. Dit maak dit 'n baie kompeterende omgewing. Die Suid-Afrikaanse druiwe kompeteer ook in die mark met ander Suidelike Halfrond druiwe produsente. Met so 'n hoë vlak van kompetisie, is dit belangrik dat die Suid- Afrikaanse industrie 'n eenvormige bemarkingstrategie het. Om 'n eenvormige bemarkingstrategie vir die industrie te formuleer, moet die industrie visie - om die voorkeurverskaffer van tafeldruiwe in ons teikenmarkte te wees - die basis vorm vir die formulering van 'n generiese bemarkingstrategie vir Suid-Afrikaanse tafeldruiwe. 'n Eenvormige visie bied vir die kompeterende bemarkingsagente 'n gemene doelwit. Hierdie werkstuk sluit aanbevelings in wat vir rolspelers leiding sal gee om hul eie bemarkingstrategie te formuleer wat die doelwitte van 'n eenvormige visie onderskryf, maar nog steeds die behoeftes van die onderskeie teikenmarkte aanspreek.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The South African table grape industry has a very fruitful history. The landscape of the South African table grape industry has changed at a rapid rate since deregulation in 1997. The sustainability of these changes was questioned and created the opportunity for this research. The orientation of this research report outlines the structure to this research. It indicates that the South African table grape industry is experiencing a strong trend of consolidation of the production and exporter base. Economically sustainable growers and marketing companies produce or attract more volumes of table grapes to export to global destinations. The environment provides the background to the South African table grape industry, since deregulation. Five major trends in this industry are important to mention and give perspective to the research question, namely: - The number of producers has declined at a rapid rate (about 52%) since deregulation. - Traditional production regions like the Berg and Hex River have become less important due to the timing of product supplied to the market. New geographic production regions have grown in importance, like the Orange River and Northern Province. - Production volumes of table grapes have slowed down over the last ten years and in certain regions have become stagnant. - The cultivar spectrum of table grapes has changed from seeded grape that is marginal to the market to a seedless product that earns premiums in the market. - There has been a shift in marketing of table grapes from Western countries like the UK and EU to Eastern countries. There are also certain factors that have a profound impact on the South African table grape industry, namely economic, environmental, political, social and global factors, which required further investigation. The evaluation of trends in the industry and the factors that affect the industry revealed the problem statement for this research and set the foundation for the research question. The research question of this study is: What are the distinguishable marketing models currently used by South African exporters and how sustainable is each model? The research methodology demonstrates that the South African table grapes industry is split into two dominant marketing models, which are the marketing agent and the grower-exporter model. A marketing model metrics was designed, based on literature and consultations with industry experts via a questionnaire, to evaluate the economic, social and environmental sustainability of these two marketing models. The method of data analysis was a qualitative investigation into the sustainability of marketing models that exist in the South African table grape industry. The structure of the holistic marketing dimension model which was used has the following four dimensions (Kotler & Keller, 2009:61): - Relationship marketing - Performance marketing - Integrated marketing - Internal marketing. Semi-structured interviews were held with six different marketing entities in the South African table grape industry, which represented 40 percent of the total population. The interviews were held by utilising a discussion guide that comprised of standard questions to all the interviewees. The information gathered from the interviews was used to design a conceptual marketing model, with the main objective of being sustainable on an economic, social and environmental level. This relevance and practicality of this conceptual marketing model was tested against a grower-exporter model in the South African table grape industry, called Angon Fruit. The findings of this research report focused on the triple bottom-line approach of building economic, social and environmental capital. The economic sustainability revealed the following factors to consider: - Grower-exporter model is a more sustainable marketing model, due to low cost operations. - Marketing agent model should have a definite competitive advantage, to justify relevance in the cost-chain. - Sustainable market share in volume of table grapes to export by a marketing company is five percent. - Prices paid to growers by a marketing company should keep track of inflation on inputs and a ten percent premium earned on top of the production cost is regarded as sustainable. - A sustainable commission percentage charged by marketing companies should not exceed five percent of free on board (FOB) value at Cape Town port. - Growers need to replace marginal seeded cultivars with premium seedless cultivars that are high in demand in global markets. - Marketing companies should supply table grapes at a split of 50 percent to Western countries and 50 percent to Eastern countries. - The sustainability of the Berg and Hex River production regions is at risk, due to global competitions from South American countries. The South African table grape industry revealed the following social sustainability findings: - A marketing company should have a social policy, which governs social responsibility projects (CSI). - The marketing company should be involved one major project instead of a few smaller projects. - Corporate social investment (CSI) projects should aim to provide the opportunity to improve education and training, improve health status and to develop sport among the youth. - The marketing company should not invest in CSI projects if the economic sustainability is at risk. The objective is to invest five percent of net profit in CSI projects, annually. Environmental sustainability revealed the following factors to consider: - A marketing company should have an environmental policy. - The company should measure its carbon and water footprint at least every two years, with the objective to reduce or optimise the level of use. - The company should embrace and implement green technology that utilises renewable energy to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and coal-generated electricity. - The use of water should be optimised, through implementation of advanced technology. - The marketing company should adopt the practice of recycling. The conclusion to this research report is that the table grape industry is still economically sustainable, however more work can be done on the social and environmental sustainability. Finally, ten recommendations are made to the South African table grape industry to consider from a sustainability perspective. Companies can consider implementing these best practices into their marketing of table grapes.

Rwanda is constrained by an export structure that is heavily dependent on one or a few agricultural export products such as coffee, tea , pyrethrum and cinchona. The country did not manage to industrialize or to diversify its export structure significantly during the post-independence period. The situation was worsened by the civil war of 1994, which almost destroyed all sectors of the economy. Traditional export crops, such as coffee, cotton, tea, cocoa, palm oil, and tobacco are all subject to large price fluctuations and declining world market prices. This paper considered the case for diversification into non-traditional agricultural exports as a strategy for improving a developing country's terms of trade. The study put forward a case of Higland Flowers Project / a flowers project located in rural Kigali about 5 kilometers to the Kigali International airport.

The objectives of this dissertation were to: (1) discover whether commenters and non-commenters on an international marketing questionnaire differ based on sociodemographic, nationality, and personality characteristics; (2) determine whether commenters with greater life satisfaction are more likely to provide positive comments; (3) determine whether commenters differ in response styles due to their national background; and (4) discover whether commenters differ (based on sociodemo-graphic, nationality, and personality characteristics) in their propensity to comment on the design rather than on other questionnaire issues. An exploratory design was used to satisfy these objectives.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

With increasing globalisation of the world economy, there is growing interest in international business research among academics, business practitioners and public policy makers. As marketing is usually the first corporate function to internationalise, it occupies the centre-stage in the international strategy debate. The objective of this study is to understand the environmental and organisational factors that drive the desirable outcomes of learning, innovation and performance in multinational firms. By adapting the IO-based, resource-based and contingency theories, the study proposes the environment-conduct-outcome framework and a model of global marketing in MNCs. Using the structural equation modelling-based PLS methodology, the model is estimated with data from a global survey of marketing managers in MNC subsidiaries. The results show that the traditional international marketing strategy and organisational structure constructs of adaptation and autonomy do not have a significant direct effect on MNC performance. Instead, the effects are largely mediated by the networking, learning and innovation constructs that are included in the proposed model. The study also shows that, whereas collaborative decision making has a positive effect on interunit learning, subsidiary autonomy has a significant influence on innovativeness in MNC subsidiaries. Finally, it is found that marketing mix adaptation has an adverse impact on the performance of MNCs facing high global integration pressures but improves the performance of MNCs confronted with low global integration pressures. The findings have important implications for global marketing in MNCs. First, to enhance organisational learning and innovation and ultimately improve corporate performance, MNCs should simultaneously develop the potentially conflicting organisational attributes of collective decision-making among the subsidiaries and greater autonomy to the subsidiaries. Second, to tap local knowledge, MNCs should increasingly regard their country units as 'colleges' or 'seminaries' of learning rather than merely as 'subsidiaries' with secondary or subordinate roles. Finally, to improve MNC performance, the key requirement is to achieve a good fit between the global organisational structure, marketing strategy and business environment. Overall, the results provide partial support for the IO-based and resource-based views and strong support for the contingency perspective in international strategy.

In recent years, the Australian government has opened the Australian economy to the global marketplace through tariff reductions and the establishment of free trade agreements with other countries. The ability of the Australian economy to benefit from these agreements is dependent on Australian businesses identifying international opportunities and exploiting their competitive advantage in the international marketplace. However, the family business literature suggests that complexities unique to family firms limit their ability take advantage of such opportunities and grow internationally. To date, the limited empirical testing of such claims has produced conflicting results. As a consequence, little is known about the international behaviour of family firms, what influences such behaviour and what effect internationalisation has on the owning family and the business. This study addresses this gap in the literature by using a mixed research method design. Using the quantitative analysis of small - to - medium - sized family - owned enterprises ( SMFEs ) contained within the most recently available longitudinal database of Australian businesses and the qualitative analysis of eight SMFEs, the internationalisation process of SMFEs in the manufacturing sector was examined. The findings of this study suggest that, compared to their non - family counterparts, Australian SMFEs are less likely to venture into the international marketplace. Furthermore, those that do, do so to a lesser degree when compared to non - SMFEs. Although the internationalisation behaviour of most SMFEs was similar to that of traditional international firms, some exhibited ?born-again? global internationalisation behaviour as a result of critical events within the firm. These included succession to the next generation and the appointment of non - family managers with the requisite expertise. The internationalisation of SMFEs was dependent on their ability to configure their resources to create globally relevant capabilities, and their willingness to exploit those capabilities in the international marketplace. In addition to the family ' s commitment to internationalisation, the production capabilities, international network relationships and overcoming a ' production mindset ' to build the requisite managerial and marketing capabilities were all found to be critical to the international growth of SMFEs. An SMFE ' s financial and human resources were found to have a substantial influence over their ability to build the organisational capabilities and international network relationships required for internationalisation. Compared to solely focusing on the domestic marketplace, there were some financial benefits to be gained by SMFEs in venturing overseas. However the extent to which they did so had no observable effect on financial performance. Overall, the financial benefits gained from internationalisation were dependent on having a long - term commitment to, and possessing the managerial capabilities required for, internationalisation. The changes brought about by internationalisation improved the overall competitiveness of SMFEs, enabling them to successfully compete with their domestic and international competitors. However, internationalisation was found to place substantial strain on the family unit, particularly when the firm had limited managerial capabilities, and was often a trigger for conflict within the family and the business. The implications of this study ' s findings for SMFEs, policy and future research are explored in the thesis. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Adelaide Graduate School of Business, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This dissertation examines the multifaceted and pervasive impact of globalisation on the Canadian public policy environment through a detailed analysis of the monopoly marketing of prairie wheat. The study argues that forces associated with globalisation, working through regionally differentiated configurations of farmer opinion and interest groups amidst varying partisan settings, are key to understanding the changing nature of policy-making processes, structures, and outcomes in the wheat marketing arena. The forces associated with globalisation include the increased presence of transnational corporations, the expansion of international trade regimes, increased interaction and cooperation between Canadian provincial governments and US state governments, the international harmonisation of regulations, advances in transportation technology, and heightened levels of education, knowledge, and information. In attempting to understand how globalisation influences the wheat policy arena, the examination uses a comparative analysis focusing on Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The inter-governmental harmony that had prevailed since the 1940s on the matter of Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB's) wheat monopoly was replaced by conflict by the 1990s as the forces of globalisation washed across the Canadian prairies. The dissertation shows that where the absence of these forces once reinforced the CWB's wheat monopoly, the presence of these forces now poses a formidable challenge to its continuation. Farmer opinion data indicates that a trend away from monopoly selling toward open marketing is present throughout the prairies. Like the presence of the forces of globalisation, anti-monopoly opinion is particularly strong in Alberta. The dissertation will also show how the conflict over monopoly wheat marketing was projected into the policy arena through differentiated sets of interest group configurations and partisan environments. In doing so, the examination points out that institutions, while often providing resistance to change, can also serve as conduits facilitating change. The analysis shows that the public policy network involved with the marketing of prairie wheat, as well as actors within this network, have become increasingly internationalised. The examination indicates that domestic governmental regulation and control have been severely undermined in the wheat marketing arena as north-south ties increasingly undermine and replace the east-west unity previously forged by the National Policy.

Shifting demographics and economic factors have recently necessitated the export of prefabricated homes. With respect to trade in the global market, home manufacturers can greatly benefit by using E-commerce and digital networks to communicate with their foreign clients. / The author proposes a software application to assist Canadian home prefabricators and manufacturers of building components to display their services and products in an interactive and electronic format. This tool would help these companies by increasing the size of their potential client base and the speed of their business interactions. / The study concludes that specialised software to facilitate the export of prefabricated homes can easily take advantage of the Internet's speed and accessibility as a download or Website as well as be available on CD-ROM.